Blurring the Lines
by Ciara in cotton socks
Summary: Twilight/Harry Potter crossover. The Cullens and Jacob go to Hogwarts to protect it from Voldemort and become witches and wizards. Better summary inside, please read if you like Twilight or Harry Potter or BOTH, like me! IT'S FINALLY COMPLETE!
1. Summary

**Summary**

6 years after the end of _Breaking Dawn_, Carlisle gets a letter from his old friend, Albus Dumbledore, who needs the Cullens' help to protect the wizarding race from Lord Voldemort. So the Cullen family must enrol in the prestigious Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where they meet Harry Potter and co.!!!

The timing is majorly screwed up, set in about Harry, Ron and Hermione's 6th Year, but with most of _Half-Blood Prince_ (except for Slughorn) and all of _Deathly Hallows_ disregarded. Nessie has matured to about the physicality and maturity of a sixteen-year-old, while Jacob is still frozen in time, being a werewolf/shape-shifter and all…..

I know it's not a great summary, but please read on!!! Of course, REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!!! Oh, and if you have any ideas or suggestions or tips or anything, either review or PM me!!!

Thanking you….

Ciara


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

**A/N: Hey everyone, here's the first chapter of my Twilight/Harry Potter crossover! Please read and review, and give me ideas! Hope you like it…**

**Ciara**

**Bella's POV:**

Everything started out perfectly normally. Well, normal for us Cullens anyway…

Nessie was out somewhere with Jake as usual. Despite technically being just six years old, my daughter was almost fully matured, with the body and intellect of an old-for-her-age sixteen-year-old or a youthful seventeen-year-old. Part of the package when you were a half-vampire, this maturity had recently led to numerous dates with Jacob Black, whose imprinting on our daughter was still something neither Edward nor I were comfortable with, even though we'd had six years to get used to the idea.

"It's not that I don't like Jake," I repeated for the umpteenth time. "I'd trust him with my life, it's just-"

"Hard," Edward agreed with a sigh. "I know. I just want to hold onto her forever." He pulled me closer to his chest, each of us seeking solace in the other's touch.

"Oh, get over yourselves!" Emmett called in a booming voice. "Nessie's a smart girl, and Jake adores her. You know he'd never do anything to hurt her."

"Ooh," Alice teased. "Look who's getting all touchy-feely!"

"Shut up!"

"_I_ like your sensitive side," Rosalie chimed in; I could hear Jasper's throaty laughter floating down from the room he shared with Alice.

"Alice?" Esme voice floated in from the kitchen, clear and airy as always. "Are the wolves dropping by today?"

Alice danced downstairs, eyes closed and a slight crease puckering her otherwise flawless brow. Jasper was close behind her, with Emmett and Rosalie bringing up the rear. "Well… everything's going blank in about an hour, so Jake will be at the very least… Oh!" Her voice rose in a mixture of surprise and delight with this last.

"What is it?" I asked, curiosity overwhelming me.

"Nothing," she said quickly, exchanging a significant look with Edward. A small, inexplicable smile still played on her lips, but I didn't bother asking again. She would explain if and when she wanted to.

"Thanks," Esme called back, unaware of Alice's intriguing comment. "I think I'll do Mexican."

The thought of human food sent a shudder rippling through the gathered group.

Alice wandered over to her laptop, which lay on the sofa, and began typing rapidly, fingers flying so fast that they were a blur of palest white skin and black nail polish. Rosalie leaned over the back of the sofa, eyes scanning the screen with enthusiasm.

"Oh, I _love_ that colour," she gushed, eyes bright. "Could you order it for me? Please?"

Online shopping. Again. I should have known.

"Of course, Rose." Alice rolled her eyes, then mouthed something to Jasper behind Emmett's back.

"Checkmate!" Jasper crowed, tipping over Emmett's king. The ebony figure spun across the monochrome of the chessboard. Jasper winked at Alice. As usual, it had been a quick game. Jasper's tactics were too much for Emmett, who relied too much on instinct. Plus, Jasper often had Alice's help.

Nessie and Jake came in, hand-in-hand as was becoming the norm. Jake grinned apologetically at Edward and I, aware of how Nessie's startling blooming into womanhood was upsetting us. He worried to, when he wasn't doting on her. Which, admittedly, was not often.

"Carlisle!" Alice called. "Carlisle, I can't stand it anymore!"

"What's wrong?" Jasper asked worriedly.

"Nothing," she replied as Carlisle joined the gathering. "I'm just wondering why I'm seeing us all outside a huge old English castle…" She stared expectantly at Carlisle, who sighed and looked around at everyone. He cleared his throat, though he didn't really need to. More for dramatic effect than anything else.

"I have some news for you all."


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

**A/N: Hey everyone, thanks for reading so far! Special thanks to my reviewers: kitkatgal37, SkaterKatie246, **** and, of course, Emzer92! See, if the rest of you just reviewed, you'd get a mention too…**

**Ciara**

**Jake's POV:**

What the hell?????

"England," I repeated slowly. "We're going to _England_?"

"Well, when Carlisle says 'we're going to England', that _is_ the general idea, dog."

I shot Blondie a fierce glare. Stupid perfect bloodsu- _vampire_. That was still taking some getting used to, even after all this time. NO matter how friendly I got with the rest of the Cullens, the animosity between myself and Rosalie remained intact. In fact, if anything it had probably grown over time. The girl just knew how to rub me up the wrong way. The only reason I could stand to be in the same room as her at all was because I knew it annoyed her. Childish, I'll admit it, but sooooo worth it just to see her perfect features distorted into a foul grimace. I continued to glare as she smirked at me, delighting in my embarrassment.

Bella spared me a sympathetic glance. "_Why_ are we going to England, Carlisle?" she inquired, voicing the question which had been implied by my tone before Blondie twisted it to humiliate me.

Dr Fang wandered into the 'dining room', which of course served no such purpose. The Cullens didn't eat in the house. Instead, it was more like a conference room. Edward grinned at me; no doubt he could hear the nickname I still had for his dad in my head. He whispered something to Carlisle, and although the two were not genetically related, there amused smiles mirrored each other perfectly.

Everybody gathered around the huge, polished table as the Chief Vampire spread a piece of what looked like parchment across the varnished wood. We all drew closer, and I had to crane my neck to peer around Emmett's huge frame to read the thin, sloping, italic writing.

_My dear friend Carlisle,_ it read,

_It pains me to write this, but Lord Voldemort is on the move once more. Each day the numbers around him swell, and I am afraid that it will not be long before he moves out into the open._

_I fear for the students of Hogwarts. Many of them are incredibly brave, but this quality is the reason I am so fearful. They underestimate the powers of Dark magic, and should a confrontation occur I believe they will rush to the aid of the good and righteous unquestioningly. I do not want the blood of so many innocents on my hands._

_I am rallying all the old crowd, the members of the Order, and I have sent envoys to many far-flung countries, but I fear it will not be enough. I need your help Carlisle, and that of your talented family. Yours is the type of power I need to protect my students. Though I cannot ask you to risk your lives on our behalf, I hope you will come and keep my students safe. Protect them from within, and hopefully no blood will be shed._

_Your family are, of course, most welcome to enrol at Hogwarts. Perhaps the extra skills will serve them well; I hear you have had the misfortune to provoke the wrath of certain members of the Volturi. I am certain, as well, that I can find a place on my staff for both you and the charming Esme. The students need not know the truth; your family may pose as exchange students from America. No one will think to question this, I assure you. Your secret will be safe within the walls of Hogwarts until you yourselves wish to expose it._

_Please come at once. I would not ask your involvement in something so perilous if it were not absolutely necessary._

_I beseech you, please come, my friend._

_Your comrade as always,_

_Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore_

I stared at the page, dumbfounded. Hogwarts? Lord Voldemort? The Order? What the hell was going on here? Who was this Dumbledore, and why did he need the Cullens' help? Was I included in that?

"Of course you are, Jacob!" said Edward sharply, making me jump. Damn. You'd think, after six years, I'd be used to him answering my thoughts.

"No, it still freaks you out," he laughed.

_Get out of my head. I'm only not punching you cos it'd upset Nessie._

"Sorry, sorry! So anyway, Albus Dumbledore is the greatest wizard of all time.

_Trust Dr Fang to be all chummy with some sort of modern-day Merlin._

"Oh no, Dumbledore's power is far more impressive than swords in stones. He is the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It's the most prestigious school of its kind in the world."

"And who's this Voldemort person?" Jasper asked. Apart from Carlisle, Esme and Edward, everyone else looked as confused as I felt. Even Blondie.

"Ahh, Voldemort." This time it was Carlisle who spoke. "He's the most infamous Dark wizard of all time, renowned for his ability and temper. He committed countless massacres in his time. Think Jane, only taller, scarier and with infinitely less morals."

Everybody shuddered at the very notion.

"He's been biding his time ever since he was defeated by a baby named Harry Potter. To this day, nobody knows what happened that night, but he didn't die, as many people thought. And now he's back. The entire wizarding race is at risk of extinction, not to mention countless mortals. They need our help."

"Then let's go!" I exploded. Me and the rest of the Quileute wolves (well, technically shape-shifters, but since when have I been interested in technicalities?) were protectors, and that extended past our tribe, even to mortals I'd never met.

Emmett clapped his hands together enthusiastically with a sound like thunder rolling. Jasper nodded, grinning down broadly at a visibly excited Alice. Bella and Nessie were hugging Edward, anticipation and eagerness plain to see on each of the three faces. Even Rosalie managed to crack a smile; I was so close to taking out a camera. I mean, the girl always looks like she has a pole up her ass.

"Well, that's settled then," Esme smiled. She wrapped her arms around Carlisle. "We're going to Hogwarts!"


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

**A/N: Hey, thanks so much to everybody who reviewed Chapter 2! That is: bella rocks, Dare2dream00, CanadianWolf, AnNaLeE m O'bRiEn, Come On!!!, love2laugh, ., EdwardCullenIsCoolerThanYou, Stregoni-Benefici, PLEASE, singersk8rgirl1426, Twilight4ever, TwilightAlice102**** and msmess21907!!! Wow, that's a lot! See, I keep telling you guys, review and I'll mention you!!!**

**Oh, and sooo sorry this took so long, I've been in Paris with my school for a while!**

**Ciara**

**x x x **

**Bella's POV:**

"Where are we going?" I hissed to Edward as we attempted to walk inconspicuously through the streets of London.

"Somewhere called Diagon Alley," he shrugged moodily. I guessed he was still suffering withdrawal symptoms from the garage full of cars we'd had to leave behind in Forks. While he trusted Seth and most of the other Quileutes indefinitely, I could tell he was nervous about leaving his 'toys' in close proximity to Leah and Paul. I could sort of see his point. Stability wasn't exactly their strong point…

A couple of yards in front of us, Jake and Nessie were strolling hand-in-hand. Despite my initial unease, I couldn't help but admire the attractiveness of the couple; Nessie's porcelain skin and toffee-blonde curls contrasted beautifully with Jacob's inky black hair, russet skin and typical Native American features. And there was something in their expressions as they gazed at each other which reminded me of the expressions I saw each day on the faces of Carlisle and Esme, Alice and Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett and, most noticeably, Edward when he looked at me. It was this utter adoration that reassured me.

We turned into a street called Charing Cross Road. We wandered past countless humans who were staring in astonishment at our attractive little group. Eventually, Carlisle came to a stop outside a tiny little pub. It was dark and dingy and sort of derelict. I also couldn't help but feel that we were the only people on the street who could see it. The humans' eyes seemed to slide over it as though it wasn't there at all. It was a little eerie.

Inside, the pub- _The Leaky Cauldron_- was even gloomier. It was so dark that anybody lacking our refined senses would be a bit disorientated. A wizened old barman who resembled a gummy walnut waved merrily to us as we took in our surroundings.

"Hello there," Carlisle smiled politely, striding over to the counter where the man was wiping grimy glasses with a rag. "I'm Carlisle Cullen, and this is my family."

"Ah, the exchange students," the barman nodded knowingly. "Hagrid!" he called across the bar. "Your guide," he explained as an afterthought.

As the person named Hagrid rose to his feet, I couldn't help but gasp. He was huge, and that was saying something when you lived with Emmett. He almost made my mountainous older brother look puny! His hair and beard were wild and untamed, covering most of his face and leaving only a pair of beetle-bright eyes to peer through the undergrowth.

"The Cullens, I presume?2 He had a rough Scottish brogue, which was somehow welcoming despite its texture. He extended a hand and I shoved Jake forward gently. The rest of us had skin so cold it would have aroused suspicion. At least Jake could feign a fever. "Rubeus Hagrid, Professor of Care of Magical Creatures and Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. If yeh want to follow me, I'll show yeh where ta go." I noticed Jake flexing his fingers as he pulled out of the handshake and smirked to myself; this Hagrid was strong.

We filed into a small backyard, gathering around Hagrid's gigantic form. He was wearing a huge overcoat, which seemed to consist of nothing but pockets. He shoved a trashcan-sized hand into one of these pockets and withdrew a flowery pink umbrella. I saw Jake and Nessie exchange confused glances as Hagrid began counting bricks in the wall above an overflowing trashcan.

Jake turned and shot me a worried glance. "Crazy," he mouthed. I shook my head.

"Just wait," I murmured.

As I spoke, the wall seemed to split in two, the gap gradually enlarging until there was a space even Hagrid could fit through. The whole group gasped, apart from Edward and Alice, who had known what to expect, as usual.

Without thinking, I pulled Edward forward into the gap. Everybody else followed suit. Hagrid beamed down at our excited expressions through his wild mane.

"Welcome," he said proudly, "To Diagon Alley."


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

**A/N:Hi everybody, I'm back again! Thanks so much to everybody who reviewed Chapter 3: msmess21907, -xXxBlonde ambitionxXx-, AnNaLeE m O'bRiEn, sahisdabest and the wonderful Team Hale, who gave me a very interesting idea… So, if the rest of you have ideas, you know what to do…….**

**Ciara**

**x x x**

**Nessie's POV:**

It was incredible; there was no other word for it.

Diagon Alley was the most amazing, astonishing place. Throngs of people flooded down the winding, cobbled street, some dressed like us in normal clothing, others in cloaks or robes in a variety of colours. I noticed Alice grip Jasper's arm very tightly. In the shop on my left, I could hear the clicking of beaks and rustling feathers of several different species of owl. Another store boasted glossy broomsticks and robes for something called Quidditch. I grinned excitedly up at Jake.

"I have yer booklists here," said Hagrid, handing each of us a wad of parchment. I scanned the list of textbooks eagerly, and I could hear several hushed conversations breaking out around me as the others looked at their lists. "The first place yeh'll want to go is Ollivander's. Best wand shop there is, an' I hear he's just expanded his range of cores…"

Ollivander's was a tiny, dusty store with a really low ceiling; Emmett had to bend down almost onto his knees to fit inside. The very air in the place seemed to be magical. Thin boxes were stacked from floor to ceiling and I couldn't resist going to take a look. I ran a finger along one of the slim velvet boxes, itching to open it up and look inside.

"Hello, Ms. Cullen," said a voice. I jumped; I hadn't heard this frail-looking gentleman come up behind me. "I am Mr. Ollivander. Would you like to purchase one of my wands?"

I nodded dumbly and followed him back to the counter. Jake grinned at me encouragingly as Mr. Ollivander carefully removed the lid from a box and handed me a long, thin strip of wood. I took it apprehensively.

"Try this, my dear. Holly and dragon heartstring. Fourteen inches."

I held it in my hand, feeling stupid. "What do I do?"

"Just give it a wave."

I did as he told me, but I had barely raised my arm before he snatched the wand away.

"No, no, no. Try this one."

And so it went. I tried out countless wands, but none of them were right. I started to get annoyed when nothing exciting happened, although Jake did get a kick out of it when I accidentally inflated Rosalie's nose to the size of a tomato.

But then Mr. Ollivander handed me another wand.

I felt the difference immediately, a curious tingling in the tips of my fingers which spread quickly up my arm. The wood felt warm beneath my already hot skin, but pleasantly so. I raised the wand in a smooth, sweeping motion; it made a pleasant swishing noise as it arced gracefully through the air, and when I brought it down a flock of jewel-bright hummingbirds burst into appearance with a popping sound.

I stared in amazement as the birds fluttered around the small store before slowly dissolving into nothingness. Jake squeezed my shoulders and Mom and Dad beamed proudly as the rest of the family burst into sporadic applause. I grimaced as Emmett's loud wolf-whistle echoed around the confined space, ringing in my ears. Mr. Ollivander nodded his aged head enthusiastically.

"My dear, that was quite something for a new witch."

I stared at him. How had our lie been discovered so quickly?

"Not to worry, Ms. Cullen. I've been talking to Professor Dumbledore and he's filled me in on the, ah… special circumstances. You're secret is quite safe with me, don't fret." He smiled and picked up the box in which my new wand was nestled. "Ah yes, aspen and unicorn hair, 12 inches. A beautiful wand, even if I do say so myself. I'll wrap it for you, shall I my dear?"

We spent about another hour in Ollivander's; the others were much quicker at choosing their wands than I had been- or, their wands chose them quicker as Mr. Ollivander said was the way of things. For Carlisle, a 13-inch birch wand with a core of unicorn hair; Esme's was 11 inches, cedar with Demiguise hair. Emmett's wand was a sturdy creation, a 15-inch strip of maple with a dragon-heartstring core while Rosalie favoured a 12-inch wand, rosewood and containing a single Veela hair. Jacob, after a little apprehension, was equipped with a rowan-and-phoenix-feather combination 14 inches long. I could see him eying it with great interest, and knew he was planning an assault on Rose as soon as he learned how to use his wand correctly.

Alice, of course, was able to reach up and pick her wand from the stack on her first attempt- 7 inches long, made of pine and with a fairy-wing core. "Ah, the Seer," Mr. Ollivander mumbled to himself when he saw which wand she had bonded with.

Jasper's wand was 13 inches, white pine with a phoenix-feather core. Dad was next, and his was a lovely wand, 13 inches like Carlisle and Jasper's. It was made of hawthorn with a core of dragon heartstring. Finally, Mom chose. Everybody gasped at the beauty of her wand- it was incredible. It was 12 inches in length, just like mine and Rose's, crafted from a beautiful yellow wandwood called Kaya and had a phoenix-feather core.

"An import," Mr. Ollivander admitted grudgingly, "From Japan. Not one of my own, but a truly exquisite wand. Quite like it's owner in that respect."

Once we had paid for our new wands with the wizarding money Carlisle had already withdrawn from a vault in the wizards' bank Gringotts- a vault nobody else had known about- Mr. Ollivander bowed us out of his shop with a contented smile and wished us well in our adventure at Hogwarts.

Standing on the pavement outside, we scanned our booklists for the next piece of magical equipment.

"Let me see," said Esme, tugging Rosalie's list from her perfectly manicured fingers. "Wow, there's a lot of stuff here. I think we ought to go get you all measured up for your school robes, and then split up from there to get textbooks, Potions ingredients, cauldrons, scales, vials, quills, parchment and Quidditch things."

_Wow_, I thought wearily, _Being a witch is exhausting!_

**So, hope you enjoyed that chapter! For your information, I got my wand details from ****.net****, which tells you the various cores and woods and what they mean.**

**For example, Carlisle's wand combo is good for Healing (what with him being a doctor and all), while Alice's is good for someone with the Sight (since we all know Alice is going to be quite good at Divination!)!**

**Will update soon, please read and review!**

**Ciara**

**x x x**


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

**A/N:Hi everybody, thanks to everyone who read Chapter 4 and liked it! As always, special thanks to those of you who reviewed- AnNaLeE m O'bRiEn, EdwardCullenIsCoolerThanYou, drakeundone, beverlie4055, nbf4eva and Nessylovesbooks. They rock. – you guys are great! I keep getting new readers, so please review so that I know you're interested. Plus, I'd love some new plot ideas so it's your chance to have some input!**

**Ciara**

**x x x**

**Jake's POV:**

All this magic stuff wasn't really freaking me out as much as I'd figured it would.

I know, right. Why the hell would a _werewolf_ (shape shifter? Man, this thing was confusing…) or whatever the hell I am be freaked out by magic at all? Kinda hypocritical, right? Well then, call me a hypocrite.

I mean, the scariest thing was definitely the dorky-looking uniforms. I'm not exactly fashion-forward- running around half-naked protecting my tribe all the time, I don't get much opportunity to go to Paris every other weekend, unlike a certain tiny, pixie-like leech… So I'm not into clothes, but seriously, black robes? What the hell?

But on the plus side, Nessie looked even more beautiful in the dark colour. She's more a pastel kind of girl and doesn't really wear black all that often, but the contrast with her porcelain skin was absolutely breathtaking; even someone less biased than me would have to admit it.

There was so much stuff to buy- Esme hadn't been kidding. We all went together to get fitted for our school robes in Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions. The witch who served us was tiny, though still about a foot taller than Alice. She had to conjure up a ladder- literally (How cool was that?!)- to fit me and Emmett, and even then she was straining to reach our necks.

We got dress robes there too- that was totally exhausting. I'd take battling the Volturi over clothes shopping any day. Us guys were happy enough to go with classic, dark colours- Alice and Blondie were a different matter entirely. Blondie spent forever preening in front of the mirror looking like the child of a top supermodel and Casper the Friendly Ghost, acutely aware of the attention of all the male customers locked on her. And loving it. Seriously, how many red silky things did she have to try on? They all looked the same to me.

"Hey Blondie, what do you see when you look into a blonde's eyes? I'll tell you- the back of her head!"

"It'll be my plan to murder you in your bed if you don't shut up, dog!"

"Oooh, think of that one all by yourself? Or did you steal it off Claire? You know, getting help from an eight-year-old kinda proves my point…"

"Shut up already! I'm going to try this one next. Don't you dare try to look."

"Don't flatter yourself, Blondie."

Alice was just as bad, if not worse, flitting around the store tugging a reluctant Bella in her wake. Bella would happily have picked the first thing she laid a hand on, being of the Jacob Black School of I Don't Give a Damn, but Alice liked to use her as Vampire Barbie and so we had to endure an hour or so more torture until a powder blue creation passed Alice's test. Then she started asking about shoes.

I swear, they might be leeches, but they were just like any other girls…

Except maybe Leah. Even Blondie wasn't quite _that_ crazy. Although Leah could be pretty civil lately, and even tried her hand at being funny- I blamed her imprint, the awful Mike Newton. Come on, I thought the girl had standards! But Leah could still be pretty psychotic when she was sleep-deprived. Ugh…

Eventually, I managed to escape into the safety of a bookstore with Nessie, Jasper and Alice- I know right, doesn't sound like me. Books are really more Bella's thing- I think she calls them 'educational' and 'intellectual'. I call them 'boring'. But they're much safer than dresses and makeup.

But these books were kinda… cool. Man, the stuff you could do with a wand! Once I figured all this spell stuff out, I could totally make Blondie's life really hard…

We bought all of our textbooks in Flourish and Blott's, then got Potions ingredients in the apothecary and vials and balances in a sort of wizarding department store. The others were going to pick up everything else, since they had Emmett, the vampire/pack animal.

It started to get really warm, unusual for England apparently. Thankfully it didn't get sunny, just clammy, so there were no screams of horror or grabbing of torches and pitchforks as the unsuspecting wizards discovered the Cullens' freakish tendency to sparkle in the sun. Instead, we sat down quietly at a round table under a parasol outside Fortesque's Ice-cream Parlour. Nessie, Alice and Jasper watched patiently as I devoured a huge strawberry and chocolate sundae topped with chopped nuts. Alice and Nessie's noses were wrinkled with distaste as they watched me eat with gusto. Jasper and I smirked in a moment of rare unison. _Girls_ he mouthed. I snorted into my ice-cream.

I was just finishing my third sundae when the others rocked up, carrying loads of packages wrapped in brown paper. Emmett was hauling several large cauldrons, and Blondie and Esme were carrying a lot of quills, ink bottles and parchment. Edward and Carlisle had their arms full of what looked like a whole forest's worth of broomsticks. They were blissfully ignorant of the stares and whispers following them everywhere they went.

"Well, I think that's everything," said Carlisle, checking the list once more, even though he didn't really need to, what with that whole photographic-memory thing the vampires had going on. "We're all set. You kids are ready for Hogwarts. But is Hogwarts ready for _you?"_

"It can't be ready for Blondie's ego," I reasoned. "Even a huge castle can't possibly have enough reflective surfaces for her to stare at herself in."

Laughing, I dodged the sharp quill she threw at me, ninja-like. Blondie was in for a long year…


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

**A/N:OK everyone, time for a bit of a soppy chapter (sorry, I can't help myself!). Please read and review as always!**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed Chapter 5: drakeundone, Raelliin Cullen Potter deSilva, insert-funny-name-here, EdwardCullenIsCoolerThanYou, -xXxBlonde ambitionxXx-, ClayCelloFire, Cheesethecat28, i. dance. with. destiny., nbf4eva, team jakeward 01 and, of course, the wonderful AnNaLeE m O'bRiEn who is my most loyal reviewer! Thanks to all you guys, and if anyone else wants to review, you'll get a mention too!**

**Ciara**

**x x x**

**Bella's POV:**

Two weeks after our trip to Diagon Alley it was time to go to Hogwarts. We packed our school trunks and divided into groups in three brand-new sports-cars for the trip to King's Cross Station.

Edward and I rode with Nessie and Jake, while Alice and Jasper carpooled with Emmett and Rose. Honestly, I have no idea how they managed to fit all their luggage. Between Alice and Rosalie they must have had enough clothes to dress the entire student population of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for at least a couple of years.

Carlisle and Esme travelled separately, as they wouldn't be taking the train with us to Hogwarts. Teachers were required to make their own way to the school. It felt weird travelling without them. We Cullens rarely went anywhere without the rest of the family anymore, apart from when we were hunting, of course. Now that they weren't coming with us to wave us off at the station, I really felt like I was being separated from my parents, even though we would see them again in a few hours.

Speaking of parents, I called Charlie from my cell phone in the car while Edward drove. Sue answered the phone and I chatted happily with her for a while; Sue was really nice, and she made my dad happy so I was all for it. Even the idea of having Leah for a sister-in-law didn't disturb me as much now that I'd gotten used to the idea.

Then Sue put my dad on the line.

"Hey, Bells," he greeted me happily. "Looking forward to going to your new school?" Charlie didn't know all the details, something he was perfectly content with.

"Yeah Dad, I can't wait. I just wanted to talk to you before we get on the train- apparently there's really bad phone coverage at the school, so I won't be able to talk to you very often. I miss you though, and I'll see you in the summer for the wedding."

"Miss you too, Bells. Give my love to Nessie, and tell Jake I say hi. And Edward… well, tell him to take care of you."

"_Dad!_ He always does! Anyway, gotta go, love you." I hung up before he could say another word about Edward.

As we drove, I noticed that Jacob was uncharacteristically quiet. I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw him staring vacantly into space. I twisted around in my seat to examine him more closely; he was pale beneath the beautiful russet sheen of his skin. Nessie's porcelain hands clasped his shaking ones, and she was biting her lip anxiously.

"You OK, Jake?" I murmured sympathetically. "Feeling carsick?"

Jacob shook his head numbly.

"What is it hon?" asked Nessie, stroking his inky black hair fondly.

Jacob opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. Nessie pulled him in close to her chest.

"Jacob," said Edward, his voice soft. "Do you mind if I tell them?" Jake must have answered with his thoughts because Edward continued swiftly. "He's missing the pack. It's hard for him to be apart from them, from his brothers and sister. Because they're so attuned to each other, it's almost like being ripped apart from the rest of yourself. Like part of Jacob is still in La Push."

"Oh, Jake!" I exclaimed, reaching out to pat his arm consolingly. He flinched under the grasp of my cold fingers.

"_Mom_," Nessie chastised, glowering reproachfully at me. I realised too late that I wasn't Jake's best friend anymore, that mine was no longer the touch which brought him solace and comforted him when he was upset. That was my daughter's job now.

"Jacob!" Edward exclaimed sharply. "Now that's quite ridiculous."

"What is?" Nessie and I demanded in unison, our eyes flashing uncomprehendingly from one to the other and back again.

"Jacob is being self-conscious and getting nervous," Edward sighed impatiently. "It's very immature, not to mention wholly unnecessary."

"It's completely necessary!" Jake exploded, quivering with a mixture of anger and upset. "It's alright for you! All you bloodsuckers are perfect and smart and charming! _You_ won't have any trouble making friends, _you_ won't struggle to keep up in class cos you've got photographic memories! _You'll_ be fine! But what about me, huh? I'm just a dumb, oversized freak who turns into a giant wolf when he can't control his stupid emotions, so how the hell am I gonna cope?" He buried his face in Nessie's toffee-blonde hair, ashamed of the tears I'd spotted welling in his eyes. Nessie whispered musically in his ear, cradling him in her strong arms and planting kisses on his anguished face. She looked close to tears herself as she held her love close.

"Jacob," I said softly. He didn't look up. "Jacob!"

Reluctantly, he glanced up with red-rimmed eyes.

"You listen to me, alright? You have nothing to worry about. _Nothing_. You're sweet and funny and kind. You'll fit in just perfectly, you wait and see. _You _haven't got freakishly cold skin, remember?" I teased playfully.

"Exactly," said Nessie, ruffling his hair affectionately. "And as for falling behind, what do you think I'm gonna do, love? Let you fail? No chance. I'll help you, and so will Mom and Dad and everyone! Don't worry, you'll be fine." She stroked his face, and she must have shown him something extremely personal and poignant because a small smile broke through on his tearstained face and he sat upright, rubbing self-consciously at his swollen eyes.

"Thank you," he said thickly. "All of you. And I'm sorry for being stupid. I guess I just… let things get on top of me."

"Forget about it," I smiled fondly. "You'll be just fine. And if it makes you feel any better, maybe we can organise for Seth and the others to come visit some time."

"I'd like that. Thanks Bells, thanks Ness…. Edward," he finished gruffly. Then he grinned broadly and suddenly he was my Jacob again.

"Perfect timing," said Edward. "We're here!"


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

**A/N:Well, here I am with another chapter. I **_**was**_** going to wait, but then I got a very panicky review from a certain someone *cough- Raelliin Cullen Potter deSilva- cough* telling me that they were literally dying to read the next chapter, so you can all thank her for the quick update!**

**Thanks to my very fast reviewers: Raelliin Cullen Potter deSilva, QuirkyOne, gabzCoatz, me (no, not me the author!), amylily123, ClayCelloFire and, of course, my wonderful friend emzer92! This one's for you, Emma!**

**Ciara**

**x x x**

**Nessie's POV:**

The train station was packed with humans. (Oh my God, I'm turning into Emmett- what else would it be packed with, sheep?)

After Dad parked the car perfectly in a space where it might go unnoticed for a couple of days, we walked to a large clock in the centre of the station, where we had agreed to meet Jasper, Alice, Emmett and Rosalie. Once everybody had arrived, and Emmett had prevented Rose from strangling Jake (again) we got trolleys and piled our luggage onto them. Walking through the station, I noticed several sets of eyes following us in astonishment. I lagged behind the rest of the group, enjoying the chance to look around.

"Hi there, are you from around here?" A blonde boy with a tattoo on his right forearm and bad acne grinned at me, his hand on my arm.

"No, I'm just waiting for my train. Excuse me."

"Hey, wait up, let's talk. I'm Jack, what's your name?" He pulled me back in a grip that would have hurt a normal girl.

"Let go of my arm." My tone was even, calm, but he didn't let go. "Fine, your funeral."

Because Emmett, Jasper, Dad and Jacob had all joined us, glowering furiously and looking all menacing. Jacob was quivering with suppressed rage.

"Easy Jake," I soothed.

"I've got it," said Jasper, never taking his eyes off the unfortunate Jack.

"I think you should leave my- sister- alone," said Dad calmly, faltering ever so slightly as he referred to me as his sibling.

Maybe Jack had the sense to realise Dad wasn't kidding, or maybe he just saw Emmett cracking his knuckles and looking like a wrestler on steroids. Either way, he turned on his heel and fled and Jacob put his arm around me contentedly.

"Sooo overprotective," I muttered, embarrassed. I pulled out my ticket to see what platform we needed to go to.

"Platform 9 and ¾ ? Is that a misprint?"

"I don't think so," said Rose, examining her ticket and staring from Platform 9 to Platform 10. She pointedly ignored the whistles and catcalls from the human boys surrounding us. "But where is it?"

We looked around blankly for a sign, or someone who could tell us where to go.

But Alice, as always, had the answer. Clasping Jasper's hand tightly she danced towards the barrier between the two platforms. She and Jasper leaned casually against it, looking for all the world like an ordinary teenage couple waiting for their train. Jazz leaned down to stroke a strand of hair from her face and the two of them slid right through the barrier into nothingness.

For a moment there was only stunned silence. Then-

"Cool," chorused Dad, Jake and Emmett.

"Children," I retorted, along with Aunt Rose and Mom. Though secretly we did find it pretty cool.

We moved forward quickly in pairs and walked right through the barrier. We emerged on a crowded platform shrouded in steam. The scene was dominated by a magnificent scarlet steam engine which bore the gleaming words _Hogwarts Express_ in gilded gold lettering. Families were gathered in clusters at intervals along the platform, chatting and hugging children and siblings as they waved them off to school.

"I guess we should grab a compartment," Emmett suggested. "I'll get the luggage."

Inside the train, we managed to find a compartment big enough to fit the eight of us comfortably, with room to spare. I beamed excitedly at Jacob as we took seats beside each other by the window. Mom and Dad sat beside us. Opposite us, Rosalie sat by the window, absorbed in her own immaculate reflection while Emmett and Alice gripped Jasper at either side, cautious as ever; there were a lot of humans on this train. Poor Jazz. He was trying so hard to control his thirst. I wished to myself that he would get better so that the Hogwarts experience could be as enjoyable for him as it would be for the rest of us. I shot him an encouraging smile.

The train pulled away from the station and we lapsed into a comfortable silence. A couple of minutes later there was a knock on the compartment door. It slid open, and three humans entered.

"Excuse me," said the first cautiously. She was a girl of about seventeen, with bushy brown hair, brown eyes and prominent front teeth. She was already dressed in her Hogwarts robes, a shiny gold badge pinned to her lapel. "I'm Hermione Granger, Head Girl at Hogwarts. Pardon me for interrupting, but there's a rumour on the train that-"

"Are you the Americans?" asked one of her companions bluntly. He was tall and lanky with a face full of freckles and a head of flaming red hair.

"_Ron_," the girl chastised, flushing with embarrassment. "Do you _mind_?"

"I was just asking."

"Yes," I smiled broadly, "We are. I'm Renesmee Hale; these are my siblings, Rosalie and Jasper." All part of the lie we'd fabricated. "We're fostered. And these are our siblings- Edward, Emmett, Alice and Bella Cullen, and Jacob Black."

"We're not actually related," explained Emmett. "Our parents adopted us all separately, then fostered Jake, then Nessie, Rose and Jazz, who are actually siblings. Confused? Even I still am, sometimes."

"Well, it's nice to meet you. I'm Hermione, as I said, and these are my friends, Ron Weasley and Harry Potter. Do you mind if we join you? Everywhere else is full."

"Of course," Alice beamed, delighted to have made friends so quickly.

Harry, Hermione and Ron fell into the seats nearest the door, eying us with great curiosity and, in Emmett's case, apprehension. Hermione brushed against Jasper and he stiffened before jumping to his feet.

"Feeling ill, Jazz?" I asked. "Here, sit by the window and get some air."

Jake and I swapped seats with Alice and Jasper, who shot me a grateful half-smile.

"Bad traveller," he managed to choke out. "Sorry about that."

The girl named Hermione watched him shrewdly, and I could tell we would have our work cut out to keep our secret from her.

"So, what year will you all be in?" asked Harry, the dark-haired boy with the glasses and the lightning-shaped scar on his forehead.

"Everyone's in Seventh Year, except for Jake and Nessie," said Mom (Bella. I had to start calling her Bella.) "we've been home schooled until now, so we don't really know what to expect…"

"We're in Seventh Year, too," Ron grinned, eying Rosalie with evident delight. "And my sister's in Sixth, Ginny."

We launched into a discussion about the school and what to expect. Quidditch, it turned out, was a sport played on broomsticks. Emmett looked thrilled at the idea. Ron, Hermione and Harry told us everything we needed to know about Hogwarts, from teachers to students.

"Avoid Malfoy like the plague," Harry advised as the compartment door slid open. "Oh God, speak of the devil and the devil shall appear…"

A pale blonde boy stood in the doorway, flanked by two goons who looked more like bald gorillas than students. His eyes flashed from face to face eagerly, sliding over our new friends as though they weren't there.

"Ah, so you're the exchange students," he smirked, an unpleasant leer further degrading his unpleasant features. "I'm Draco Malfoy, and these are my friends, Crabbe and Goyle. There's room in our compartment if you'd like to join us. The company will be… better."

He smiled at Alice, Rosalie, Mom and I in turn. His stare made my skin crawl.

"No thank you," said Rosalie coolly, wrapping her arms around Emmett. "We prefer not to associate with weedy little mummy's boys who bring trained monkeys with them to protect them. We have standards. Goodbye… Drago, was it?"

The boy named Malfoy flushed a dull pink and swept out of the compartment. We all laughed heartily, even Jasper who looked a little more relaxed now.

"_That_ was brilliant," Harry laughed. "Anyone who hates Malfoy is a friend of ours."

"Oh Lord, look at the time!" Hermione exclaimed. "You lot better change into your robes, we'll be arriving soon."

We changed quickly. I could feel the excitement bubbling in my stomach as the train slowed to a stop and I clutched Jacob's hand excitedly.

"We'll see you up at the school," Ron called as we got into carriages drawn by creatures called Thestrals. Jake and I got into a carriage with Jasper and Alice and everybody else got into the carriage behind us.

"You're doing really well, Jazz," Alice soothed, stroking his hair fondly as the carriage lurched forward. "Keep it up."

We turned a corner, and Jacob slapped my arm.

"What?" I asked impatiently, rubbing my elbow. And then I saw it.

Illuminated by the light of the full moon, a great castle loomed ahead of us.

"This is it," I whispered.


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

**A/N:Hey everyone thanks for all the great feedback I'm getting! I'm at 6****2 reviews now, so let's try to make it to 70 with this chapter, OK? Sorry if this isn't the greatest chapter, I'm depressed because I just realised that here in Ireland there's only 6 episodes of Prison Break left and then it's over… FOREVER!!! *sobs uncontrollably***

**Special thanks to my great friend, the lovely Emzer92. Be sure to check her out, she's great! Thanks Ems…**

**Thanks as always to all of you who reviewed since my last post: Emzer92, QuirkyOne, wolfgirl1404, amylily123, Raelliin Cullen Potter deSilva, Twin of Alice, EdwardCullenIsCoolerThanYou, Dare2dream00, drakeundone, -xXxBlonde ambitionxXx-, nbf4eva ,team jakeward 01 and ClayCelloFire! Love you all…**

**Ciara**

**x x x**

**Bella's POV:**

Carlisle and Esme met us in the large Entrance Hall while the rest of the students filed past us through a large set of double-doors. They pulled us into a small chamber away from prying eyes and eager ears. I was glad; Draco Malfoy was lurking again.

"I'm glad to see you all arrived safely," said a soft voice.

I jumped about a foot in the air; Emmett sniggered and dodged Edward's reproachful swipe. The rest of the group managed to stifle their giggles, more wary than Emmett of Edward's overprotective tendencies.

"I am Professor Dumbledore," the speaker continued, an elderly man with a long snow-white beard and wise features wearing half-moon spectacles and an interested expression. "And this must be Carlisle and Esme's charming family- Emmett, Rosalie, Alice, Jasper, Renesmee, Jacob, Edward and Isabella, welcome to Hogwarts." He inclined his head to each of us in turn as he said our names. Nobody asked how he knew who was who.

The man named Dumbledore looked like the very essence of magic. He wore long, midnight-blue wizard's robes lined with silver and gold stars and his long white hair and beard hung right down to his waist. He grasped a wand in his right wand and his piercing, twinkling blue eyes gave the impression that he could X-ray you and see whatever he wanted, including your innermost thoughts and feelings. I felt awed to even be in his presence.

"We are very pleased to have you all here at Hogwarts. I understand how difficult this decision must have been, how dangerous it is for you all. We are intensely grateful. Now, if you'd like to make your way to the Great Hall, you will be Sorted after the new First Years."

We filed into the Great Hall, aware once again of hundreds of pairs of eyes locked on us. We lined up neatly behind a crowd of frightened-looking eleven-year-olds and watched with interest as they were Sorted. Student after student stumbled forward as a severe-looking witch in an emerald-green cloak called out their names. They sat on a three-legged stool as a grubby, heavily-patched wizard's hat was placed on their heads and waited until it shouted out the name of one of the four Houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. I got used to it after the first few times.

Gradually, the First Years filtered away to their new tables until we were the only ones left. Professor Dumbledore rose to his feet before we could be Sorted.

"Congratulations and welcome to all our new First Years. I trust that your years here will be both enjoyable and educational." He paused as most of the students applauded the new students politely. "Now, as you can see we have several older students here, waiting to be Sorted. This is the Cullen family, who I am pleased to say have just transferred here from America with their parents, our new Muggle Studies teacher, Professor Esme Cullen, and our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Carlisle Cullen. Please make them feel welcome here at Hogwarts."

"Black, Jacob," called the sharp witch, Professor McGonagall.

Jake shuffled forward awkwardly and sat down on the stool. Professor McGonagall placed the hat on his head and we all held our breath.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat yelled after a moment's deliberation. Jacob ambled off to the Hufflepuff table where he was immediately engulfed by a group of curious students.

"Cullen, Alice."

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Cullen, Edward."

"GRYFFINDOR!"

I noticed that the yelling intensified as Edward joined Harry, Hermione and Ron at their table. A couple of boys were pushed unceremoniously from the bench as girls vied for a seat in closer proximity to my husband. I smiled to myself.

"Cullen, Emmett."

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat roared.

"Great," I heard Emmett mutter darkly. "Stuck with the Malfoy kid."

"Cullen, Isabella."

"Bella," I whispered in annoyance. "It's just Bella." Why could nobody ever get that?

I took a seat and felt the hat being lowered onto my head. It barely touched my hair before yelling "GRYFFINDOR!"

I beamed contentedly and slid onto the bench beside Edward. Most of the girls at the table shot me very ugly looks and stabbed their forks into their food with more force than absolutely necessary. The boys were really… _friendly_, but I ignored them as the Sorting of my family continued.

"Hale, Jasper."

"RAVENCLAW!"

Jasper walked stiffly to the Ravenclaw table and took Alice's hand in his.

"Hale, Renesmee."

Nessie rolled her eyes at the use of her full name and I grinned to myself. We were more alike than she knew.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Edward nudged me gently and I followed his gaze. Jake's face was split in pure relief as he beamed up at Nessie.

"Hale, Rosalie."

The male population of the school sat up a little straighter as Rose strutted forward and sat down with one leg arched perfectly over the other. A small smile played on her perfect lips as even some of the male teachers were struggling to master breathing and blinking at the same time.

"SLYTHERIN!"

Three quarters of the boys in the school howled in disappointment. The Slytherin quarter could hardly contain their delight. At least, until Emmett slid his hands around Rosalie's waist. Then they looked away to avoid being killed. Emmett had that effect on people.

An hour or so later, it was time to go to our dormitories. W walked with Harry, Ron and Hermione. It was a simple enough route to remember.

"So," said Hermione, who was one of several girls I would be sharing a dormitory with. "Looking forward to classes tomorrow?"


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

**A/N:Sorry I took a while to update, I got a serious case of writer's block! But I'm all better now…**

**Firstly, thanks sooo much to everyone who reviewed since my last update! I was aiming for 70 reviews, and now I have 80!!! So let's try for 90 this time people! Thanks to the following wonderful people who helped boost the numbers: Raelliin Cullen Potter deSilva, Twin of Alice, Emzer92, -xXxBlonde ambitionxXx-, drakeundone, QuirkyOne, YetAnotherEdwardCullenFan, Team Hale, team jakeward 01, Riverenzii Silverstarkiller, -My7Edward-, Dare2dream00, me again, msmess21907, Oh. Its. Her, James018 and Laura (twice!) Keep it up guys, you keep me going!**

**This is a chapter for my friend Hazel… I think you'll see how she fits in here…**

**Ciara**

**x x x**

**Jake's POV:**

While Edward and Bella were over at the Gryffindor table palling up with the kids from the train, Hermione, Ron and Harry, Nessie and I were being quizzed at rapid speed by our new classmates in Hufflepuff like contestants on a corny T.V. gameshow. Except if we got an answer right, we didn't win a shiny new car or a spa holiday. We just got another question.

"So, are you all… together?" asked a girl with her hair tied back in a fat plait.

"_Susan!_" her companion squealed, her blonde pigtails bobbing as she shook her head.

"Oh come on Hannah," the girl named Susan retorted. "You know you want to know just as much as I do."

"Yeah, we're together," I grinned. "Sorry to disappoint you, ladies."

"Uh, Jake, I think they're more interested in D-Edward. Sorry to burst your bubble."

"Is that the bronze-haired boy?" asked Hannah eagerly.

"Yeah, that's him, with his girlfriend. The brunette, Bella."

"And the blonde?"

"My brother, Jasper," said Nessie, following their gaze. "And he's with Alice, the little dark-haired one."

"So then the big one is… Emmett? He's… he's big."

"Yeah, he got in the way of an Engorgement Charm when he was a boy. Screwed up his brain pretty bad, the kid's not very bright," I said sadly. Nessie's lips twitched momentarily as she avoided my gaze to prevent her uncontrolled laughter messing up the prank. "I think Rosalie, the blonde-"

"His girlfriend?" asked a boy whose name I was pretty sure was Ernie.

"Yeah, but I think she's getting a bit bored with his whole Dumb and Dumber routine. Hey, you should totally ask her out!"

"Really? You think she would be- attracted to me?"

"Oh yeah, she'll really enjoy this," I grinned encouragingly. Nessie smacked me under the table as Ernie jumped eagerly to his feet and strode over to the Slytherin table.

"Mean," she hissed. "You know Emmett will kill him!" But her eyes twinkled with mischief and she watched proceedings just as eagerly as I did.

Ernie walked right up to Rosalie and said something, giving a loud, pompous guffaw of a laugh. He reached out to touch her arm but he had barely extended his own when Emmett was suddenly standing over him, looking a bit like a scarier, dark-haired version of one of those old Stretch Armstrong dolls. Ernie retreated sharply.

Once he was back at our table, pale and shuddering and unable to speak, I caught Rosalie's eye and winked. The glare she shot me from beneath her eyelids would have been really scary had she not been experimenting with a new pink eyeshadow that made her look like she had a disease in her eyes.

"Hey Blondie," I called across to her. "You've got something in your eye. Just there." I sniggered as Blondie's teeth were bared in a horrible scowl. I grinned even wider when she picked up a spoon as soon as she thought I wasn't looking and examined her reflection frantically.

With Susan and Hannah occupied with getting a blow-by-blow account from Ernie of his rendezvous with two more members of the mysterious and slightly freaky Cullen clan, Nessie and I made our escape. We got as far as the Entrance Hall.

"Hey, wait!"

I groaned and turned around reluctantly to face the Spanish Inquisition, Part 2. But thankfully it wasn't Ernie or Susan or Hannah. Instead, a pretty girl stood shifting nervously from foot to foot. She had nut-brown hair arranged in perfect spiralling curls, the sort of hair Alice would love to transplant onto Bella, and there was a tiny plaid bow nestled jauntily to one side.

"You-you dropped this," she said, holding out a woven bracelet to Nessie. I looked at it and realised it was the bracelet I'd made her six years ago. Kinda like a Quileute version of a promise ring. A bit cheesy maybe, but when you have your imprint you stop worrying about things like that.

"Thanks," Nessie grinned, deftly tying it around her slim wrist with a more secure knot, like something straight out of the Navy. Again with the perfect-at-everything thing!

"No problem. I'm Hazel by the way."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Nessie and this is Jake."

"Do you want me to show you to the common room?"

"What, no fainting or obsessive questioning?" I asked.

"Jacob!"

"Nope, no fainting here. Though I'll admit I _did_ get a bit freaked out when Ernie nearly passed out. What did your brother _do _to him?"

"Not much," I grinned. "Emmett's OK really, once you get passed the whole Incredible Hulk thing he's got going on. He's just protective of Blondie-"

"That's Rosalie?"

"Yeah, her. Dunno why, the girl's pricklier than a porcupine with a headache." I raised my voice slightly as the doors from the Great Hall opened and a familiar voice floated out.

"I heard that!" Rosalie yelled. Nessie and I burst out laughing.

"I think you were meant to," Hazel called back, half-amused, half-apologetic. "That won't work here," she added when I took my iPod out of my pocket.

"Oh come on! No music?"

"We've got wizarding radio if you can make do with that."

"Wizard radio? I'm guessing it's not exactly Metro Station, judging by these dorky uniforms…"

"I love Metro Station!" Hazel exclaimed. "I'm Muggleborn," she explained when I stared at her in surprise. We both began to sing "Shake It" very loudly and, in my case, out of tune. Nessie laughed so hard she had to grab hold of the wall just to stay vertical.

"Fine," I pretended to sulk, betrayed by a twitch of my lips. "Let's see how clever you are when you need someone to save you from Alice's next Extreme Makeover: Nessie Edition."

"Oh Jake, please no! I'm sorry!" Nessie squealed, shuddering at the very idea. She had inherited her mom's disinterest in clothes, much to my delight. I had enough stuck-up model-like behaviour with Blondie, and enough fashion obsession with Alice. I definitely didn't need to add Nessie to that mix. It was tiring and confusing enough already. "Please Jake, don't put me through that torture. She might braid my hair again!"

What with her being my imprint and all, I couldn't upset her for long. If that's being soft, call me a marshmallow. "Sure, sure."

Hazel stopped suddenly and I nearly ran into her. For her sake, I was glad I hadn't. She probably would have come out in bruises.

We were standing by a white marble plinth topped with a life-like statue of a badger. Hazel walked up to the statue, then turned to look at us.

"The password is _Amicitia est verus veneficus._ You stroke the badger's head and whisper it in his ear like this." She did so, and a door sprung into existence on the seemingly blank stretch of wall behind the statue. "Welcome to the Hufflepuff common room."

"See," said Nessie smugly. "I told you we'd be fine."

Honestly, I loved the girl and all, but sometimes there was something about her that reminded me of Blondie. We were going to have to do something about that…


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

**A/N:Here we are again! Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed since my last update, once again**** we passed my target. I'm on 95 reviews now… let's make it to 100, shall we?**

**Oh, welcome my two friends wallytops (a.k.a. Laura) and Haze-Ox (the Hazel from my last chapter!) It was only a matter of time before Emma and I got you hooked!**

**Thanks as always to my reviewers: Emzer92, Dare2dream00, TwilightForever93, drakeundone, -xXxBlonde ambitionxXx-, Oh. Its. Her, Raelliin Cullen Potter deSilva, Cheesethecat28, James018, Riverenzii Silverstarkiller, CanadianWolf, wallytops, Kimmy Cullen and Haze-Ox !!! Knowing you're interested keeps me writing…**

**Hope you all enjoy the chapter… I need some help though. I already know how the story will end, but I need lots of fillers to get there! So any ideas you have for plot, even if they're small and random, would be greatly appreciated!!! Please!!!!**

**Ciara**

**x x x**

**Jasper's POV:**

_Please don't let me kill anyone. Please don't let me kill anyone. Please don't let me kill anyone. Please don't let me kill anyone._

"Jasper, relax!"

Alice skipped lightly across the Ravenclaw common room and slid fluidly into my lap. Her small hands caressed my face, a cherubic smile playing on her bee-stung smudge of mouth as her sharp eyes assessed me.

_Please don't let me kill anyone. Please don't let me kill anyone. _

_Please don't let me kill anyone. Please don't let me kill anyone._

"Jasper! You look like you have a nervous tic! And your knuckles will explode if you clench your hands any tighter."

"Sorry," I choked out, trying valiantly not to inhale. If there is such thing as Hell on Earth, this room was my own personal corner of it. So many different aromas blending together. Their flavours burned my throat as I contorted myself attempting to deny the insatiable craving which was consuming me.

"Listen," Alice lowered her voice to a whisper inaudible to the oblivious humans around us. "I've checked and double-checked. You're not going to hurt anybody, I promise."

"I-I'm not?" I asked, taken aback by her certainty, though of course I should have realised Alice would be on the lookout for me. We were kindred spirits after all, and wasn't I constantly trying to ensure that she remained happy? It stood to reason that she would do the same for me, in her own unique way.

"No," she said firmly. "In fact, you won't even try." Her tone was proud as she ran her fingers through my honey-blonde hair. My own hand sneaked up to ruffle her inky black spikes affectionately.

"Sorry," I mumbled again. "It's just so hard…"

"Honestly Jazz, you should have more faith in yourself. You're control grows stronger by the day. I trust you, I just wish you would learn to trust yourself. You won't hurt anyone."

I breathed a huge sigh of relief, and Alice and all of the humans in the room suddenly relaxed visibly.

"Oops," I laughed shakily. "It seems my tension's been rubbing off on everyone."

"I thought so. Trying to decide what to do with Bella's hair doesn't usually make me nearly so stressed, and that's saying something if you've seen her hair! I mean, it's so beautiful, she has so much scope and then… nothing." She shook her head sadly, then flashed me an apologetic grin. "Sorry, I'm rambling."

"You know I don't mind. I like listening to your voice." I smiled a small smile, still tentative in these new human-filled surroundings. I had found life difficult enough at Forks High School, but the humans had never been so numerous in such close quarters as in this common room. My only hope of success in my attempt at not killing anyone was the fact that my lessons would distract me more than the usual boring coursework in Forks.

We lapsed into a comfortable silence, as we often did when we were apart from the others. Our relationship went beyond mere words; we could almost hear each other's thoughts, such was the depth of our synchronisation. Instead of talking, we gazed into each other's eyes, reading things in their golden depths that even Edward could not comprehend.

"Hello Alice, Jasper."

We jerked out of our joint reverie, crashing back to Earth heavily. A thin, pale girl with waist-length dirty-blonde hair was standing just beside us, running a finger nonchalantly over the marble bust of a lady wearing a tiara. Her pale eyes looked at us expectantly.

"Uh, have we met?" I asked in confusion, certain that we hadn't. I think I would remember a girl like her, wearing radish-shaped earrings and a pair of multi-coloured glasses. Her wand was tucked behind her left ear for safekeeping.

"Oh no, we haven't met. But I know all about you, and your family," she said dreamily, her voice taking on a sing-song quality.

I shot a worried glance at Alice, who seemed to be concentrating very hard on something. She didn't seem nearly as concerned about this demented-looking newcomer as I was.

Then she looked up suddenly, with a tiny "Oh" of comprehension. "You must be Luna Lovegood," she smiled knowingly. "I've heard so much about you." I stared at her in disbelief. "From Edward," she mouthed. I nodded.

"Yes," said Luna, "I expect you have. The people around here think I'm a bit strange, so you've probably heard all sorts of rumours."

"Not really," said Alice kindly. "But is it true you went hunting Crumple-Horned Snorkacks in Sweden during the summer?"

"Oh yes!" Luna enthused, her eyes brightening. "I went with my daddy, he's been longing to prove the sceptics wrong for so long…"

"And did he?" asked Alice.

"Unfortunately, no. We did find a horn though. Daddy's still conducting various experiments on it…"

"Lovely," Alice smiled as Luna drifted away. I stared at her in disbelief.

"What on Earth is a Crumple-Horned Snorkack?"

"I have no idea, but Edward told me earlier that Luna was in this House, and that they were all she was thinking about during pudding."

"Is she- a bit mad?" I asked weakly, glancing over to where she was reading a magazine upside-down. The other students were giving her a wide berth.

"_Jazz_," Alice scolded. "That's not fair. She seems to be a very nice girl, genuine and honest as they come according to Edward. She doesn't seem to have many friends, and I felt bad for her."

"Only you would be so kind-hearted," I smiled softly as the common room began to empty for the night.

"I think we'd better head to our dormitories to avoid arousing suspicion," Alice sighed, kissing me lightly on the lips. "Try not to get too nervous, and I'll see you for class in the morning."

She followed a gaggle of giggling girls up the stairs to her tower room, and I rose apprehensively to join my roommates, Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner and Terry Boot. I held my breath, feigning homesickness and shyness as they chatted and got into bed, I lay stiffly on top of the sheets of my four-poster, fully clothed, until their breathing levelled and then I bolted downstairs, swift and silent as a ghost.

I sat alone for a while, staring musingly into the embers of the dying fire in the grate. Eventually, the common room door slid open.

"Hello Jasper," said Carlisle. "How are you coping? You've been very quiet the past few days."

"I've been worried," I blurted. "I still am. Alice swears I won't hurt anyone, but I can't help but feel uncertain."

"Perfectly natural," Carlisle nodded, taking a seat beside me. "Though you're doing magnificently well. But I can tell that's not all you've been pondering."

I looked at him for a couple of moments. Although he hadn't changed me himself, Carlisle always did his utmost to make me feel part of the family. At the risk of sounding clichéd, he had become a real father figure to me.

"You know me well," I laughed. "I've been wondering… how is it that we became witches and wizards? From what I can gather, they are born, not made."

Carlisle smiled at me. "I've been wondering when somebody would think to ask that. You see Jasper, when we make the change from human to vampire, our chromosomal structure is altered. It is the same for Jacob, more or less, and Nessie too, though she was born with the chromosomal irregularity. But when our genetic structure changes, a small strand of DNA is embedded in us. It defies all medical possibilities, but that is what happens. And this genetic glitch is also present in those of magical blood, witches and wizards. It gives us an affinity to them, the ability to become like them. In theory, any vampire or shape-shifter could pick up a wand just as we have."

I stared at him sceptically.

"I know it's hard to grasp, but that is what happens. That is how we can be wizards and witches even though we were not born with their magical powers but adopted them. Even Professor Dumbledore and I, who researched it together for several years, do not fully understand it. It defies all realms of possibility, and yet here we are."

"Thank you Carlisle… I think."

"Any time Jasper. I am always here to listen. I'll see you in class tomorrow, I hope. Try not to get too involved with thinking about things we cannot possibly understand. And have faith in yourself. You are a good person, Jasper. Always remember that, and the struggle to remain true to yourself will not seem so hard."

With that, he was gone. I sat there until the first beams of sunlight filtered though the window panes.


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

**A/N:I'm back again!!! I've been totally confused as to what to write, but thanks to the wonderful wallytops and James018, who gave me some very good ideas! Without their help, I wouldn't be writing this chapter!**

**Thanks to the following who have helped me reach an amazing 113 reviews!!! : Emzer92, Raelliin Cullen Potter deSilva, ELAELAELA, CheeseFace (three times), jamester56, Dare2dream00, TwilightForever93, Twin of Alice, Oh. Its. Her, nbf4eva, TanyaUchiha, Kimmy Cullen, wallytops, James018, Sapphire Serina Riddle and amylily123 !!! Wow, that's a lot!**

**OK so we've made 113… Can we push for 120??? I'll have to wait and see…..**

**Ciara**

**x x x**

**Rosalie's POV:**

I was really starting to get bored with life in Slytherin. And Emmett and I had only been there a few short hours.

On the plus side, the décor was very grand and luxurious, all soft lighting and plush velvet. Very me. There was a lot of dark wood and finely upholstered sofas, and a quick peek around the door of my dormitory told me I would be 'sleeping' in a large four-poster bed with thick, emerald-green curtains to seclude me from my roommates. The bed was surprisingly comfortable, as I discovered when I sat down apprehensively. It almost made me wish I still needed to sleep.

But apart from the furnishings, Slytherin House was falling rather flat. The company was horrific; all these awful Slytherins seemed to do was be nasty about other people. Although I was the undisputed queen of the veiled insult and scathing glance, I was never as deliberately cruel as these teenagers. Malfoy, of course, was at the centre of it all, sniggering at our new friends from the train and at the student population in general. At least until Emmett started cracking his knuckles menacingly and saying in a loud voice how much he hated bullies. Malfoy shut up pretty quickly after that; even his pet gorillas, Crabbe and Goyle, barely reached Emmett's elbows.

"I really don't like that kid," he growled under his breath to me.

"Seriously? And here I was thinking you two would be the best of friends," I teased, running my fingers through his dark curls fondly.

Emmett leaned in and kissed me passionately, his hands tugging at my hair and his lips finding their way to the hollow at the base of my neck. I replied with interest, leaning into him until we were lying across the sofa we had all to ourselves. The common room was silent as the grave.

After a few long moments, we sat up as though nothing had happened, which was true, at least for us. Emmett and I were creatures of passion, and could never keep our hands off each other for long. To us, that embrace was as normal as holding hands. Though apparently that was a sentiment not shared by our fellow Slytherins, who were staring openly at us now, as opposed to the furtive glances they'd been stealing before. Draco Malfoy looked like his head was about to explode.

"What's wrong, mummy's boy?" Emmett called to him. "Never seen somebody make out before?"

"Hardly likely, is it?" I joined in. "After all, who would touch him? Nobody likes weeds." I noticed a hard-faced girl flush a spectacular shade of scarlet at this comment and smiled smugly. Nothing like taking an arrogant little brat down a peg or two to break up the monotony.

Eventually, the rest of the Slytherins slouched off to bed, leaving Emmett and I alone, which suited us just fine. But soon even our favourite pastime grew tedious. There was nothing to do here.

Just as that thought popped into my head, there was a tap on the window pane. I jumped to my feet and let in the handsome brown owl sitting patiently on the sill. I detached the piece of parchment tied to his leg and he flew away again, heading for another one of the castle's tall towers. I read the perfectly flowing calligraphy on the scrap of parchment and grinned broadly.

_Let's hunt._

In less than five minutes, Emmett and I were standing at the edge of a large wooded area known as the Forbidden Forest, waiting for the others. Soon, Edward and Bella wandered up, holding hands and gazing dreamily into each other's eyes. Emmett pretended to gag, so I smacked him across the head. I still felt guilty about how I'd treated Bella when she was still human so I always tried to prevent her being upset or annoyed where I could.

"Alice and Jasper aren't coming," Edward said, shooting Emmett a furious glare. "Jasper's in a bad mood, he doesn't want it to affect the rest of us. So of course, Alice is hovering on the stairs keeping an eye on him."

"Let's go then!" I said impatiently. The thirst was burning my throat as I longed for the freedom of the hunt. There weren't many dense forests to hunt in when you were staying in a five-star hotel in Knightsbridge.

"We're still waiting for Nessie and Jake," Bella reminded me.

"Great, the dog's coming," I groaned.

"Aw Rose, quit being so mean to the kid. He can't help being a werewolf any more than you can help being a vampire," Emmett reasoned. I smacked him in the head again.

"I don't hat him because he's a _dog_," I sneered. "I hate him because he's an annoying little brat who doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut."

"Oh come on, his jokes _are_ pretty funny."

I slapped Emmett again. When was he going to take the hint and shut up? I loved him dearly, but he could be pretty tiring when he wanted to be.

"Hey Blondie!"

I rolled my eyes and counted to ten in my head. _Here_ _we go again_, I thought to myself.

But for once Jacob didn't waste time annoying me; Nessie was thirsty and she was his priority. We set off into the dense foliage of the forest, giving ourselves over to our basic instincts as we hunted our prey. Jacob went off to transform, then joined us in his wolf form. This was the way I preferred him; he couldn't talk.

Edward was the first to catch something, a large buck deer. He sprinted through the trees in a streak of bronze hair and beige cashmere sweater and sank his teeth into the neck of the unfortunate creature. Pretty soon, everybody was quenching their thirst.

Emmett ate like Jacob, animalistic and fierce. His clothes were ruined within minutes of catching his first prey. Nessie and I were more delicate and much neater, not causing nearly as many bloodstains. But Edward and Bella brought the grace with which they carried themselves in daily life to their hunting style. They were fast and impeccable; neither of them got so much as a drop of blood on their clothes the entire time we were hunting.

Eventually, once everybody was feeling full and rather bloated, we made our way back into the tamer area of the castle grounds. It was nearly morning time, so we walked back into the castle silently to avoid waking the humans. Just before we reached the huge oak doors, I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye in one of the tower windows, but when I looked back it was gone. I shivered ever so slightly; I was almost certain that I had seen a human hand pull away from the sill, as though somebody had dashed out of sight when they realised I was looking. A human somebody.

I couldn't quite shake off the feeling of deep unease nestling in the pit of my stomach, even when the rest of the school woke up and it was time for our first day of classes.


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

**A/N:Here we are again! Thanks as always to my loyal reviewers, you guys keep me writing, so keep up the good work! Special thanks to my reviewers since my last update:**

**This chapter is specifically for my friends Laura (a.k.a. wallytops) and Emma (Emzer92) who have been waiting with bated breath for this chapter ever since Hazel sang Shake It with Jacob Black, and also for my fanfiction bud, Raelliin Cullen Potter deSilva, who I promised this to long ago. Here you go girls, hope I don't disappoint!**

**As always, please give me new plot ideas, I'm open to suggestions! Actually, I kind of NEED them… Otherwise the story will be way too short and I'll reach my climax way quicker than anticipated, which would kinda ruin it…. So help me, for the good of the story!!!**

**Love as always,**

**Ciara**

**x x x**

**Bella's POV:**

The morning after our hunting expedition into the Forbidden Forest, Edward and I sat with Harry, Ron and Hermione at the Gryffindor table. They ate breakfast, while we pretended that we didn't like eating early in the morning.

"You didn't eat dinner last night either," said Hermione thoughtfully, stirring her tea by waving her wand over the teacup. "Are you sure you're not sick or something?"

"Oh no, we're fine," I said quickly, scanning the Hall for something to change the subject. Thankfully, a distraction arrived in the form of a pretty girl with waist-length flaming-red hair. She slid in beside Harry and kissed him on the cheek.

"Can you two just- not?" Ron shuddered, looking away pointedly. "We've got company, in case you hadn't noticed."

"Well, they've already seen you eating, so a simple kiss on the cheek should pale in comparison," the girl countered sharply before turning to us with a marginally friendlier expression. "Hi, I'm Ginny, the sister of the boy with the incredible unhinging jaw here." She cuffed Ron in the arm as he inhaled a sausage and swallowed it whole.

"Hi," I smiled back. "I'm Bella, and this is Edward. You're in Sixth Year, right?"

"Yeah, I am."

"Could you do me a favour?"

"That depends. If it involves killing Malfoy I'm all for it but-"

"No cold-blooded murder involved. You see the tall Indian boy and the girl with the toffee-coloured curls at the Hufflepuff table? They're my brother and sister, Jake and Nessie, and they're in your year. Could you make sure they settle in alright?"

"No problem, but I don't think you have anything to worry about there. They seem to be fitting in just fine." Ginny indicated a brown-haired girl with a bow in her hair who was chatting enthusiastically to Nessie and Jacob. Then another girl joined the group.

"Hey Harry, Ron, Hermione," she beamed.

"Hi Raelliin," the trio chorused back.

"Good holiday?" asked Harry.

"Yeah, I went to Spain with my parents," Raelliin replied. She checked the tiny gold watch strapped to her wrist and gave a yelp. "Come on Ginny, we've got ten minutes to get to Divination, all the way up North Tower!" And with that, the two of them were gone in a whirl of robes and frantic grabbing of textbooks.

"Speaking of getting to class," said Hermione, "Here are the Seventh Year timetables." She handed one to each of us, and we quickly compared our schedules. "Looks like we're in all the same classes!"

"Great," I grinned. "So, we've got… Transfiguration first class then." I was glad that Carlisle had given us all a crash course in our subject choices before we came to Hogwarts. Transfiguration was pretty hard, but now that we were up to speed, we would be fine. And the rest of the group, obviously excluding Nessie and Jake, would be in all our classes too. Plus, Alice would be taking Divination of course. Somehow, I got the feeling she would adapt surprisingly well in that class…..

"Should we get going then?" asked Edward. "We don't want to be late on our first day, love. You know what they say about first impressions."

So we got up and headed to class, following Ron, Hermione and Harry. Although he could easily have kept up with them, Edward lagged behind, his features clouded with concentration. I kept pace with him, leaning my head against his shoulder as we walked. I looked up at his mesmerising features, caught somewhere between thoughtfulness and anxiety as he watched Rosalie walking along with Emmett a couple of metres ahead of Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"What is it?" I murmured softly, stroking his forearm wistfully. I wished I could hear what he was thinking.

"Nothing," he said, a little too quickly to be believable.

"Honestly Edward, I'm no Maggie but I can tell when you're keeping something from me."

"Alright," he sighed, slowing down more so that we were out of earshot of our human friends. "Rose is worried. She thinks someone saw us on our way back into the castle this morning."

"What?" I yelped, a little too loudly in my horror. A couple of passing students stared curiously as they walked. "Edward," I continued in a lower voice, "This is awful! Who? Where? Will they tell?" I stopped in my tracks at the idea of someone like Draco Malfoy knowing our secret.

Edward put his hands on my shoulders, and bent slightly so that his nose was mere centimetres from my own.

"Calm down, love. I don't know who it is, or what they'll do. Nobody I've listened to this morning has been thinking anything out of the ordinary. It will be fine, I promise you. No matter what happens, nobody will hurt you, not if I have anything to do about it."

"But what if you get hurt trying to protect me?" I whispered, as close to tears as a vampire with dried-up tear ducts can be. Maybe I was overreacting, but the thought of getting found out horrified me. They wouldn't understand, everyone would hate us.

"We ought to get moving," Edward smiled, kissing my forehead gently. "We've been dawdling."

We walked faster, hurrying to catch up to the others, but our eyes never once left each other's. Edward's deep topaz ones were full of a fierce determination that made me feel a bit less panicky.

All of a sudden, there was a loud thud and a dark-haired girl was sprawled on the floor, books in disarray around her.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," said Edward chivalrously, helping her up. I bent and picked up her books in one fluid motion.

"That's OK," said the girl breathlessly, tucking a strand of hair back into its ponytail. She was tall, about 5' 6" or more, with dark brown hair and eyes which seemed to change colour as she spoke. "We should have been paying more attention."

Her friend nodded in agreement, clearly thinking that if they _had _paid more attention they would have seen Edward coming and come up with a better topic of conversation than the fact that he had almost concussed one of them. She had a pleasant face, quite pale with a smattering of brown freckles across her nose. Her hair hung loose, waving past her shoulders. It was such a deep shade of brown, it could almost have been black. There couldn't have been more than a centimetre in difference between her and the first girl.

"No, it was my fault," Edward persisted. "Bella and I were trying to find the Transfiguration classroom, we should have been on the lookout for foot traffic." He smiled the lopsided smile I loved, and I could see the two girls attempting not to faint. I really would have to talk to him about dazzling people.

"We were just headed that way," said the second girl warmly. "We could show you if you like."

So we walked along companionably with the girls, whose names we discovered were Emma and Laura. They were very friendly, offering to show us anywhere we needed to go and advising us on all the best spots in Hogsmeade village. The taller of the two, Laura, with the wavy hair, even offered to teach us to play Quidditch, which was the sport we would be using our newly-acquired broomsticks to play.

"They seem nice," I murmured, as we took seats behind Alice and Jasper towards the front of Professor McGonagall's class.

"Yes," Edward agreed. "They have very kind, honest minds. Although they were both singing something called the Pina Colada song quite loudly in their heads…" We exchanged a confused glance, then turned to face the front as Professor McGonagall called the class to order.

She was a serious witch, with a severe expression and an attitude to match. After taking attendance, she introduced Emmett, Rose, Alice, Edward, Jasper and I to the class. Then it was time to get to work.

Today we were working on the topic of Animagi, or wizards who can willingly turn into animals. According to Carlisle, the theory for this subject had already been covered in a lower year, but now we would actually be attempting the transformation. It was intensely difficult, and Professor McGonagall didn't seem to have very high expectations.

Sure enough, nobody managed it for a long while. Then Ron let out a great shout of excitement: in the place where Hermione had just been standing was a visibly elated otter.

Soon after this incredible feat, Jasper managed it, becoming a sharp-eyed falcon. Nobody else managed it, much to our disappointment, but Professor McGonagall reminded us that only a very few magical people could become Animagi. She advised me and the rest of the Cullens to keep trying, saying our work was promising, and awarded Jasper and Hermione 20 points each for their Houses. As the bell rang, she was handing them forms to complete so that they could apply for official Animagus status from the Ministry of Magic.

Our next class was Potions, which I was dreading. I didn't like the look of Professor Snape one bit…..


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

**A/N: Hi everyone, thanks for all the reviews I got ****for Chapter 12!!! To those of you who took the time, you're amazing, I keep writing because you keep reviewing! So thanks to: Emzer92, Dare2dream00, TwilightForever93, ELAELAELA, drakeundone, Oh. Its. Her, CheeseFace, Raelliin Cullen Potter deSilva, nbf4eva, TanyaUchiha, James018, wallytops, FrequentlyDazzled93, Sapphire Serina Riddle, amylily123 ChocolateGal16, corinne, Twin of Alice, AshlingDervil and blackfeatherlass ….. If I've forgotten anyone, please tell me!!!**

**Special thanks on this chapter to wallytops, who gave me the idea and helped a lot, and to Haze-Ox and Emzer92, who actually spoke the words involved in one part of Jake and Rose's argument…**

**Um, I had a bit of a scare Sunday night, one of the girls who plays Gaelic football on my club's senior team had a pretty serious neck injury and is in a neck brace….. Not to turn this into a sob story, but if anybody who reads this could keep her in your thoughts, I would really appreciate it…..**

**Love,**

**Ciara**

**x x x**

**Jake's POV:**

While everybody else was off in Seventh Year Transfiguration learning to turn into animals (Ha! I was sooo gonna ace that spell when we covered it…) Nessie and I were sitting in the highly-perfumed Divination classroom, listening to a demented-looking woman in oversized glasses and wearing a couple of hundred strings of beads around her scrawny neck droning on about the proper way to read tealeaves. As far as I could see, it was just a pile of soggy brown stuff in the bottom of a china cup. The only message I was getting from the mush was that Divination was a waste of time.

There was one upside to it though. Blondie wasn't in this class. In fact, she wasn't in _any_ of my classes. Wow. It was kinda quiet without her, and a little boring. Weird, but I sort of missed our blazing arguments. They were certainly a better use of my time than sitting here, getting high off the perfumed flames coming from the fire.

"Professor!" called a girl with two fuzzy auburn plaits in a shrill voice. "Professor, what does this symbol mean?"

Professor Trelawney floated over to where the girl sat perched on the edge of her pouf, staring at the contents of the teacup as though she was hoping they could tell her the winning numbers in next week's national lottery. She picked up the cup with a bejewelled hand and examined the contents closely. Eventually, she stared down sadly at the girl.

"My dear," she said in a hushed voice, as though the girl was on her deathbed. "You have the Grim!"

"Oh not again," groaned Ginny Weasley, sitting somewhere behind me. "She told Michael Corner that in Third Year and he's still alive and kicking. What a load of rubbish!"

I was in complete agreement with her.

"What's the Grim again?" asked a boy with dark hair which had bleached-blonde tips. He looked like a gormless hedgehog.

"It's that big, ugly dog thing," his friend replied. "You know, like a werewolf. It's evil, brings death wherever it goes."

A couple of whispered conversations broke out at this, but Ginny Weasley just snorted with laughter, an action I echoed with gusto.

Professor Trelawney turned on us, looking scandalised.

"Mr. Black, is it? My dear, perhaps you ought to take things a bit more seriously." She looked at my pityingly, which annoyed me. "You don't seem to have much of an aptitude for this subject. Perhaps if you paid more attention, you wouldn't be struggling quite so much."

That did it. I couldn't help but lose my temper. Who did this sherry-drinking old witch (that doesn't sound nearly as insulting when it's true…) think she was, telling me I was behind the rest of the class? How could you possibly be behind in a stupid class about fortune-telling and voodoo, with a teacher who couldn't predict the future if you paid her?

"Calm down Jake," Nessie whispered. "Someone will notice."

She had hardly spoken when the frizzy-plaited girl gave a little shriek and leapt out of her seat.

"Professor!" she squealed. "Professor, Jacob's shaking. Maybe he's ill!"

Everyone looked at me, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't control the shivers racking my body as I attempted to stem my anger. Turning into a wolf right here in the middle of Pointlessness 101 might just give the game away…

"I'm fine," I blurted through clenched teeth, though nobody looked at all convinced. Professor Trelawney teetered towards me in a whirl of cardigans and multi-coloured beads, looking like a walking advertisement for Mardi Gras. She swept up the steps and pressed a hand to my forehead.

"My dear, you're burning up!" she exclaimed. "Ms Evans, show him to the hospital wing immediately!"

Of course, it would be the squeaky redhead. Still shaking with suppressed rage, I snatched up my schoolbag and stalked out of the classroom, leaving Professor Trelawney looking like a wide-mouthed tree frog and Nessie biting her lip with worry. The redhead scuttled after me, looking pleased with herself.

"The hospital wing is this way," she trilled, her voice irritatingly high-pitched, as though someone like Blondie had sucked on helium before speaking. "I'm Bianca by the way, I hope you're not mad that I told Professor Trelawney you looked sick, it's just that it's scary when you know someone isn't well and you're worried about them and…"

On and on it went. The girl talked more about her own thoughts on my mysterious illness than Alice did about clothes. Seriously, what did she think she was, some kind of freaky genius girl? As far as I could tell, witches and wizards didn't study normal stuff like science and biology, so how the hell would she know what was wrong with me? God, she actually _was_ like a red-haired version of Rosalie… The thought of two Blondie's was almost enough to make me actually feel sick.

"So here's the hospital wing," Bianca chattered, pulling me through a set of doors onto a longish ward with beds lined up on either side. It was empty of patients as far as I could tell, except for the bed at the end of the ward on the right, but the curtains were pulled around that one.

"Madam Pomfrey," Bianca called, still sounding like the long-lost sister of Alvin and the Chipmunks. "Madam Pomfrey, Jacob has a fever or something!"

"Let me look at you," said a pleasant, female voice. A plump woman with a kind smile whipped out from behind the curtains and bustled down the ward to where I stood. She had caring brown eyes, and her brown hair was flecked with grey. She looked rather tired, but assessed me professionally with shrewd eyes.

"He's running a fever and keeps shaking," Bianca piped up, in what she seemed to think was a helpful manner. Personally, it just made me want to tie her to one of these hospital cots and leave her there. Permanently. But that wouldn't be fair. Then this nice nurse lady would have to put up with her. I didn't want to drive anyone to murder… Unless Blondie was their intended victim. Then I would supply them with the weapon and be their accomplice.

Madam Pomfrey reached up and put a hand to my forehead. She pulled her fingers away as though she'd been burned. Which she probably had. My body temperature was so high that the phrase 'you could fry an egg on his forehead' wasn't a figure of speech anymore.

"My dear, you're running a very high temperature. I think you'd best stay here until we can sort you out. Hop into one of the beds down this end if you don't mind, Mr Malfoy is down the end. He had quite a nasty accident in Potions and I think it's best to keep a safe distance where possible. The smell is rather putrid. Hurry on now."

And despite my protests, I was forced into a set of spare pyjamas and thrust into the nearest bed. She might look tiny, but Madam Pomfrey was deceptively strong.

So I endured a couple of hours of pointless poking and prodding as she attempted to figure out how I was still alive when the temperature I was running indicated that I should be dead. Eventually she decided to give me a dose of some foul-smelling potion. I almost choked trying to swallow the steaming liquid, and spit most of it out into a potted plant on my bedside locker when Madam Pomfrey wasn't looking.

All of this would have been fine, if it hadn't been for the visitor I got when the rest of the school was at dinner.

"You have someone here to see you dear," the nurse said, adjusting my sheets as she left me, presumably, in peace with my visitor. Peace? Yeah, right.

Blondie was standing at the foot of my bed, a bunch of grapes in one hand and wearing a malevolently smug expression. She sniggered at the sight of me sitting hunched over in the bed, feet dangling over the end and kneecaps showing in pyjamas that were at least two sizes too small for my huge frame.

"Poor Jacob," she teased evilly, tossing her hair as she contemplated what to do. "Look at you, an invalid in a hospital bed. It'd be sooo easy to torture you right now….. Sounds fun, don't you think?"

I was about to respond with an x-rated swear word when a better idea struck me. Now I was the one grinning.

"Madam Pomfrey," I called as she changed the sheets on a bed nearby. "Rosalie here is feeling a little ill. Maybe you should check her out." I looked at Blondie with mock concern.

"No, no I'm fine, really," she said hurridly.

"She just doesn't want to worry anyone." I almost laughed at the idea of Blondie taking anybody else's feelings into account.

"You do look rather pale, dear," Madam Pomfrey fretted. She put a hand to Blondie's forehead. "You're freezing! Into bed at once, and I'll whip up some Pepper-Up Potion. No arguments."

And despite Blondie's protests, she was bundled into the bed opposite mine and dressed in some rather unflattering cotton pyjamas. She glared at me wickedly as she gamely swallowed the hot potion the nurse offered her.

Then Madam Pomfrey came over and put a new cold flannel on my forehead. I screamed as the cold water hit my warm brow. Blondie sniggered as soon as the nurse was out of earshot.

"Only your fellow dogs could have heard that, it was so high-pitched."

"Well you're a bitch, so I guess you had no trouble then," I smiled back sweetly as she eventually got the joke. "Blondes," I muttered under my breath.

"How dare you?" Blondie shrieked furiously. We glared across the small space at each other, neither one of us blinking as we attempted to out-stare the other.

"Could you two please be quiet? Mr. Malfoy is trying to sleep, so stop squabbling like children." Madam Pomfrey frowned as she pulled across both sets of curtains, interrupting our battle for the moment. There was a moment of silence, then-

"I know you're still staring at me Blondie."

"What, have you got X-ray vision now, dog?" she spat back.

"I can't help it if you're obsessed with me, I am absurdly good-looking."

"I'd rather stick pins in my eyes."

"Feel free."

"I wouldn't give you the satisfaction. But if you want to, go ahead, be my guest. I'll even supply the pins."

"What, are you going to slice them off the metal pole you've got stuck up your butt?"

Maybe being stuck in the hospital wing wasn't so bad after all. After all, I had Blondie to wind up, and Malfoy was sick as a dog (no pun intended) too. Things were looking up, even if I was stuck in too-small pyjamas in a hospital bed when the only thing that was wrong with me was that I occasionally turned into a giant wolf…..

Every cloud has a silver lining and all that…


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

**A/N:Hi everybody, I'm so sorry I haven't updated in so long! *smacks self* I know it's a really pathetic excuse, but I have been really busy with school exams and working on my school yearbook and stuff….. Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry!**

**Anywho, big thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed since I dropped off the radar, and to those of you who PM'ed me encouraging me to get going again. I sort of got stuck in a CSI:NY rut, but I'm over that now and hope to update a lot!**

**Thanks to the following reviewers: AdeleLuvzJasper, TwilightRulesXo, felinefan, Bekah.x, jewelthebrat, VeronicaD13, Aquaflame13, Twin of AliceAnnabethChase5450Farmer Joe-Gothic Fairy, Canadian Wolf, ellinelly, blackfeatherlass, LizzyBennet 12, Winter Gleam, Sapphire Serina Riddle, wallytops, AshlingDervil, nbf4eva, Painelust, CheeseFace, musicalwritergurl, Emzer92, Oh. Its. Her, Dare2dream00, TwilightForever93, ChocolateGal16, TanyaUchiha, musicaldancer7700, amylily123, Raelliin Cullen Potter deSilva and wolfgirl404….. Phew, that's a lot! Maybe if I don't take as long to update I won't have this backlog problem…**

**Anywho (finally) on with the story…**

**Love, **

**Ciara**

**x x x**

**Emmett's POV:  
**

We went to visit Rose and Jake in the hospital wing when classes ended for the day. The rest of the school were eating in the Great Hall, but I figured that devouring a grizzly bear at the Slytherin table might just give the game away. And anyway, it was the perfect opportunity for some good old-fashioned teasing. Nessie, sucker that she was, smuggled up some food for Jake, lining her pockets until they were fit to burst. I half expected her to start storing food in her cheeks hamster-style, but I didn't say as much. Not that that made much difference.

"Quit making fun of my daughter Emmett," Edward growled, all tangled up with Bella in a way which might have caused First Years to spontaneously combust if they hadn't been busy stuffing their faces in the Hall.

I sniggered, almost breaking a statue as I dodged out of the way of his angry blow. It yelled at me, which was unexpected, but I just told it to shut up. I was getting used to these freaky things happening.

"Dad," groaned Nessie, flushing spectacularly scarlet with mortification. "You're sooo overprotective. It's embarrassing!"

I sniggered even harder at that as we traipsed into the hospital wing. Jake and Rose were sitting bolt upright opposite each other, arms crossed and glaring furiously. Nessie rolled her eyes and danced to Jake's side, kissing him on the cheek and shooting Jazz a pointed glance.

"I'm on it," he murmured with a wink. Instantly, the tension that had been dripping off them evaporated.

"I know what Jasper's doing and I don't care, I still hate you," Jake snarled.

"The feeling's entirely mutual, dog," spat Rose, giving him the look she usually reserved for me when I messed up her perfect, elaborately styled hair.

"Oh, so you two finally found something you agree on?" I asked cheerfully. They both gave me the finger. Jake threw a bedpan at my head which missed by inches. You could have cut the silence with a knife….. or, in our case, a tooth.

"So Edward, looks like flying lessons later," Alice said loudly, in a wildly transparent attempt to change the subject. Even Jazz, who always took her side, snorted with laughter. "Jeez, sorry for trying to help," she muttered sulkily.

"Could you please keep quiet?" hissed a plump lady. "Mr Malfoy is trying to sleep." As she shuffled off, I distinctly heard her mutter "Americans." Jake rolled his eyes and stage-whispered "Humans."

I grinned and strolled towards the end of the hospital, where a certain blonde-haired rat was cowering, feigning sleep. I leaned in silently and poked him in the back of the head.

"Get off, get off, get off," he shrieked, scrabbling to get away from me.

"Hey Malfoy, you're mom called. She wants her voice back."

His eyes narrowed into slits as I grinned at him in a way I knew to be particularly infuriating. He opened his mouth to call the nurse, but I clamped a hand over his lips. If there's one thing I hate, it's a squealer.

"How're you feeling?" I smirked. "That was a nasty explosion in Potions, wasn't it? I'd sure hate for anything like that to happen again."

His eyes bulged so wide I actually thought they were gonna pop out of his head. I tapped my nose and walked back to where the others were waiting, laughing silently.

"_You_ did that?" Jasper choked, bumping knuckles with me in appreciation. If vampires could cry, the tears would have been rolling down his face. "Genius."

"Genius," I agreed, thinking how weird the word sounded when it was used to describe me. Usually, that was an Edward or Alice adjective. I'm more of an 'asshole' or 'moron' kinda guy. Being told I was smart felt good. Not that I'd be breaking out the plaid pants and bottle-cap glasses just yet, but still… nice to be appreciated.

"Alright, alright, Mr Black, Ms Hale, I can't find anything really wrong with you, so you can go," Madam Pomfrey blustered. "Just go please, all of you!"

She pushed us towards the door and shut it firmly in our faces. Jake grinned through a mouthful of chocolate cake.

"Couldn't wait to get rid of us, could she?" he snorted. "It must have been you Blondie. All that pent-up anger. Maybe you should go see a shrink."

"If I do, it'll be because I've gone crazy and murdered you."

"Right, that's it," Alice interrupted, standing arms akimbo and frowning furiously at them. For a pixie, she could be quite scary when she wanted to be. "Not another word. From either of you."

"But-"

"Don't _make_ me get Carlisle."

"You wouldn't-"

"Don't tempt me. Do you have any idea how frustrating it is for Edward and Jazz to listen to you two squabbling like schoolkids? It's driving them insane, with all the emotions and spiteful thoughts. Just grow up for God's sake!" she exploded, panting heavily. There was a moment of stunned silence, then-

"Sorry Alice."

"Yeah sorry."

"You should be," she pouted, linking arms with Jasper. For maybe five minutes we strolled along in a companionable silence. Then-

"Jerk."

"Airhead."

Alice gave a demonic shriek and dashed off towards Carlisle's new office.

"Oooooh, you guys are in trouble," Nessie and I chorused, grinning wickedly.


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

**A/N:HI everybody, I hope you're all proud of me cos here's a super quick update- 2 chapters in as many days! *pats self on back* This chapter is a Quidditch one, hoping that you all like that direction… If you don't please review with other ideas!!!**

**So this chapter is specifically dedicated to Laura and Hazel and the crazy times we've been having in the last couple of days- I blame the e's in the blue millions! Note to readers: the 'fishtable' thing is a private joke…..**

**Speaking of readers, kudos to those wonderful people who reviewed Chapter Fourteen: Dare2dream00, Twin of Alice, Oh. Its. Her, jewelthebrat, koko123, TanyaUchiha, Farmer Joe-Gothic Fairy, teamjakeward, Aquaflame13, FrequentlyDazzled93 and bellaandedwardforever02 ! You guys are brilliant, I cannot tell you how much it means to me that you take the time to review!**

**Alrighty then, enough with the cheesy appreciation and on with the task at hand…**

**Love,**

**Ciara**

**x x x**

**Nessie's POV:**

Alice, as always, had been right. After Jake and Rose had to deal with Carlisle's whole 'if you want to be treated like adults, act like adults' lecture (I knew it well; it was usually reserved for Emmett and I), we went strolling through the grounds. As we did so, we bumped into Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny, who were heading down to the Quidditch pitch with Emma, Hazel and Laura.

"Want to come?" asked Harry eagerly. "We could use a few more players."

"Actually we don't know how to play," admitted Mom- Bella, dammit! I had to learn to call her Bella. This was giving me a headache. "It's not a big sport in Forks. Too many Muggles."

"You can't play Quidditch?" Ron exclaimed, snorting with laughter at our ignorance. Ginny and Hermione both smacked him across the head.

"What my idiot brother means is, we could teach you, if you like," Ginny grinned.

"Definitely," Emmett and I agreed.

"Let us just Summon our brooms first," Jasper said, extracting his wand from his pocket. "_Accio brooms._" They came soaring towards us from all directions and each owner caught theirs deftly. The others stared openly at us.

"What?" Jake asked impatiently. He hated being stared at, which was sadly an occupational hazard of being a gigantic hottie, even when people didn't know you were a shape-shifter.

"Are-are those Firebolt 2nd Series'?" asked Laura in a reverent voice. I turned my broom over in my hands and sure enough those very words were emblazoned on the in gold on the highly polished handle. I nodded, unsure what all the fuss was about.

"I've never seen one except in _Which Broomstick_. Quality Quidditch Supplies only order them in on demand," Hazel whispered. "Can-can we touch them?"

Without waiting for a reply, everyone except Hermione and Emma surged forward in a chorus of "oohs" and "aahs". We had to promise to let them have a go on them to get them to back off.

When we reached the pitch, Harry explained the rules. It wasn't all that complicated; three Chasers played with the red Quaffle, trying to put it through three gold hoops which the Keeper guarded. Beaters hit two cannon-like balls, Bludgers, away from their team and towards opponents using wooden bats. The Seeker tried to catch the tiny, winged Golden Snitch, which was worth 150 points, and capturing it ended the game. Simple enough.

Jake and I helped Ron carry up the bats, balls and gear from the storage shed.

"So, is everybody playing?" Harry asked.

"No," said Emma and Hermione in unison, hurrying off towards the stands. "We'll watch."

"Me too," agreed Alice, holding up her hands. "This manicure doesn't do physical activity."

And so we began. The rest of the Cullens, Jake and I started trying out the various positions. The brooms were great, responding to even the slightest touch and we soon got used to the game of Quidditch.

"Wow," called Ron as Dad (Edward, Nessie, Edward!) tossed the Quaffle the length of the pitch through the centre ring. "You guys are great! I think we've got a couple of new players, eh captain?"

"Oh yeah," Harry agreed. "Bella and Edward are natural Chasers, they'll work well with Ginny."

"Definitely," piped up Laura, swinging her Beater's bat with enthusiasm. "That cup has our name on it for sure this year!"

"Not so fast," Alice called from the stands. "Did you _see_ Jasper's Keeping? You'll find it hard to get the ball past him." Jasper grinned sheepishly as a rousing chorus of catcalls rose up at the note of pride in her voice.

"Much as I hate to say it, I wouldn't write off Slytherin either," Emma chimed in. "Emmett's got to be the biggest Beater I've ever seen… and I've watched Crabbe and Goyle play! Plus, if they use Rosalie as a Chaser they'll finally have a girl on the team and might be able to play some TACTICAL Quidditch for once."

I nodded fervently in agreement, laughing with the other girls. The boys all looked thoroughly disgruntled and a minute or so passed before Ron and Emmett yelled "Hey!" in indignation, having finally caught up with the joke. Of course, that set us all off again, even the other boys.

I was so busy laughing that I didn't notice the Bludger hurtling towards me until it was too late. I opened my mouth to scream and-

THUD.

I looked up to see it whistling away, Jake in front of me, bat raised and looking slightly frantic as he scanned me for injury.

"I'm fine," I soothed, jumping into his strong arms. "My hero." He ignored the teasing note in my voice, scooping me up in a tight embrace.

"Um, hate to break up the little love-fest going on here," said Hazel awkwardly. "But I'm Hufflepuff Quidditch captain and I wanted to ask you two to be on the team."

"Really?" Jake asked incredulously.

"Of course! That last hit must have been 250 metres!" She turned to Laura, Beater's bat raised, with a challenging grin. "Between me and Jacob here, you guys will be beaten to a fishtable. And Nessie, you're a brilliant Seeker."

"I am?"

"You bet. On a par with Harry I'd say, right dude?" she called into the stands.

"Sure, dude!" Emma called back, in a very authentic American accent.

"We haven't had a good Seeker since… well, since Cedric," said Hazel sadly. "But with you two on the team, Hufflepuff will actually stand a chance of winning!" The prospect made her light up with anticipation as she grabbed the two of us in a tight hug.

"Well," sighed Hermione, walking towards us across the grass with Alice and Emma. "One thing's for sure- the Quidditch Championship is anybody's game this year, meaning tons of training sessions, endless tactical discussions and mud all over the common room floor!"

She groaned audibly, echoed by Emma and Alice.

"The only sport I speak is shopping," giggled Alice. "Well, that and the occasional game of casual baseball."

"Me too."

"Oh Ems, give over, you know you love Quidditch!" Laura called, shaking her long brown hair out of the ponytail she had tied it in while playing. She raised her wand and levitated the equipment back to the shed.

"There's a difference between enjoying it as a spectator and being a psychotically obsessed player," Emma countered as she, Hazel and Laura made their way back to the school.

"I'm beat," I sighed, snuggling into the crook of Jake's elbow. "See you guys tomorrow."

"I can't wait for DADA," Hermione gushed enthusiastically. Harry and Ron exchanged a half-amused, half-exasperated glance.

"Cullen's bound to be better than Umbridge," grumbled Harry. "But with those looks he seems more like Lockhart, which isn't any better." He shuddered affectedly.

"Hey!" exclaimed Rosalie indignantly.

"Oh yeah, he's your dad, sorry."


	17. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen**

**A/N:Hey everybody, I'm back… Sorry I took so long but I had stuff on my mind, including a family holiday to EuroDisney and my Meitheal training week… Anywho, I'm back now and waiting with bated breath for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince to hit our screens….. *squeals excitedly***

**Please excuse the weakness of this chapter, and the fact that some things don't quite add up… I'm sort of pretending HBP and DH didn't happen, so I have no idea who the teacher of DADA was in 6****th**** Year… sorry about that!**

**As always, thanks to my loyal reviewers from the last chapter: FrequentlyDazzled93, Dare2dream00, TwilightForever93, wallytops, ChocolateGal16, Raelliin Cullen Potter deSilva, teamjakeward, Team Rosalie, Farmer Joe-Gothic Fairy, AshlingDervil, CanadianWolf, Ally145, Aquaflame13, .Her, bellaandedwardforever02, Albino Porch Monkey, Emzer92, Twin of Alice, amylily123, Rosalie, mangotango101, WeirdRandomHyperTwilightFREAK-, Esther Skye Moffat, HarryPotter'sCharmed, blackfeatherlass, IAmYoursForeverJaiHo, To die upon a kiss, sweetdarkchild and the evil angel……….. Wow, I know I've said it before but I should really start updating quicker. Let's try and get it to 250 reviews with this one…..**

**And now… on with the story**

**Bella's POV:**

"I hope Carlisle does a good job," I murmured as Alice, Rose and I took seats near Emma, Hazel, Laura and Hermione towards the back of the room. By the window, Edward, Emmett and Jasper were deep in conversation with Harry, Ron and two guys named Dean and Seamus. Malfoy came in the door, saw Emmett, blanched and dropped his books. I swallowed a giggle and faced the front.

"Hello everyone," said Carlisle, flashing a winning smile which had most of the room's female population's hearts fluttering, "I am Professor Cullen, your new teacher. Now, your previous teacher was unable to explain to me how much work you had covered in this subject, having left rather… hurriedly. However, judging from your excellent OWL results from two years ago, it seems you have a good knowledge of the coursework to date. Can anyone tell me what topic you were supposed to cover next?"

Hermione's hand was in the air before he had even finished speaking.

"Yes, Ms Granger?"

"We're supposed to move on to a more detailed study of Dark creatures next, sir," she said breathlessly.

"Thank you Hermione. If that is the case, let us begin with vampires. Can anybody define what a vampire is?" Again, Hermione's hand sliced through the air like a blade. So too did that of a round-faced boy I recognised from our common room who was sitting three rows in front of me. "Yes Neville?"

"A **Vampire** is a magical being that is known for biting people on the neck and sucking their blood. They are usually pale and gaunt, with sharp teeth for puncturing the neck. They have an aversion to garlic-" (Alice and I exchanged amused glances) "- and can be kept at bay by its presence," recited Neville carefully.

"Excellent. It appears your other teachers were right about your hard working attitude. Ten points to Gryffindor." Neville grinned sheepishly. I got the impression that he didn't win points very often.

"Does anyone else have anything to add?"

"Please sir," piped up Hermione. "Vampires are classed as Beings by the Ministry of Magic, a fact that led both the Centaurs and Merpeople to decline the same status since they did not wish to be associated with them. They are not considered to be Wizards-" (again we grinned) "-and the treatment of Vampires is laid down in the Ministry's _Guidelines for the Treatment of Non-Wizard Part-Humans_."

"Perfect, another ten points for Gryffindor. As Hermione and Neville have told us, that _is_ the standard definition of a vampire. However, does anyone find fault with that description?"

"Yes!" exclaimed Rose hotly. "It's totally biased. Whoever wrote that description can't have met very many real vampires. 'Beings'- they're _people_, and who knows, maybe there are good vampires out there, people who just happen to be afflicted with something beyond their control and are just trying to get through life without doing anything wrong, without '_biting people on the neck and sucking their blood._" Maybe there are even vampires who don't drink blood at all!"

"Very good Rose," said Carlisle smoothly. "In fact, if you turn to page 167 of your textbooks you will find a very good discussion of that particular argument. There is also an excellent paragraph on the characteristics of vampires which you should divide into relevant bullet points…"

"He's doing great," I whispered to Alice under the cover of the crinkling of parchment and unscrewing of inkbottles. Alice smirked knowingly.

"I knew that already," she murmured in her harmonic, melodic voice."

"Of course you did."

The lesson flew by quickly. Even though I already knew all the stuff Carlisle was saying, it still interested me. He was a great teacher, always authoritative, never aggressive, encouraging but not condescending. Gradually, more and more students began to offer their opinions and I was pleased to note that at least everyone didn't want to burn vampires at the stake.

However, about five minutes before the end of class, Alice stiffened ever so slightly, a movement which would have gone unnoticed by humans but which my sharp eyes caught. Her beautiful features were momentarily blank, but then her expression cleared and she exchanged frantic looks with Edward. I jabbed her in the ribs.

"What is it?" I asked fearfully.

She shook her head of spiky black hair and swiftly wrote a note on a scrap of parchment. She tossed it into my lap and I caught it deftly. I looked at the page and dread suddenly filled me. There, in Alice's small, sloping hand were two words that would have made my blood run cold if I were still human:

_Hermione knows._

I gaped at her in horror, the full extent of the repercussions crashing over me. Would Hermione tell? Would the whole school know our secret? Would they turn on us?

As soon as the bell rang, we made a beeline for Carlisle's desk. Edward wrapped me up tight in his strong arms and kissed the top of my head comfortingly. Alice relayed the story to the others in a halting, breaking voice. Nobody spoke for a long moment. Then Carlisle sighed wearily.

"I'll get Esme to fetch her. Will somebody go get Nessie and Jacob?"

"I will," Rose murmured, dashing out the door. Nobody had spoken by the time she returned, closely followed by a terrified-looking Nessie and Jake, who was gnawing so hard on his lip I thought he was going to bite it clean off. We waited in dread. I could feel myself shaking , worrying about what would happen to our family…

The door creaked open and every head snapped up sharply. Esme came in, a kind expression on her lovely face as she put her arms around a distraught Hermione, who was pale and whose eyes were bloodshot.

"It's alright dear," Esme soothed. "We won't hurt you."

"How did you find out?" Emmett blurted. Hermione winced at his sharp tone.

"I-I saw you one night," she explained shakily. "Coming back from the Forest. And then Rosalie got all defensive in class today, and all the characteristics matched- not eating, not sleeping, beauty, cold skin…"

"Are you afraid?" Jasper asked hoarsely.

"I was, at first. I wanted to tell everyone, but then I realised how I'm always telling people not to be prejudiced and I figured it'd be hypocritical not to give you the benefit of the doubt and- I was right to do that, wasn't I? You're not going to- to attack me or anything?"

Carlisle chuckled. "Of course not. We do not hurt humans- you saw my children hunting, we drink only the blood of animals."

"Oh thank God," she sighed in relief.

"Hermione, you know that you must keep this secret," murmured Esme gently. "If too many people know, things could get nasty. Not everybody is as accepting as you."

"I know, I promise to stay quiet, but I think- I think the others will figure it out soon enough. Maybe not Ron, but Harry or Emma or Hazel or Laura…"

Within ten minutes, Harry, Ron, Ginny, Hazel, Laura and Emma were gathered in the classroom. Carlisle explained the situation to them quickly. Ron freaked out initially, but Hermione soon calmed him down.

"I don't care," said Harry. "So long as you don't hurt anyone… except maybe Malfoy. Or Snape."

"Me either," Ginny agreed. "But I appreciate you telling us."

"Hang on, if you lot are vampires, what are Jake and Nessie?" Ron demanded. "They're not like the rest of you, are they?"

"Thank God for that," Jake shuddered. "I'm a shapeshifter… kinda like an Animagus, I guess."

"And I'm half-vampire," explained Nessie. "Bella's my mom, and she gave birth to me when she was still human. Edward's my dad."

"Whoa, so you two have…"

"Ron, stop it!" Hazel shrieked, smacking him across the head.

"Ugh, he's got _such_ a filthy mind," groaned Emma.

"Like you weren't all thinking the exact same thing."

"Anyway," said Laura over the arguing. "I've heard rumours… Is it true that some vampires have special powers?"

I grinned as Alice launched into a detailed explanation. It was such a relief that our friends now knew the truth. And with them sworn to secrecy, the Volturi would never have to know that they knew…..


	18. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen**

**A/N:Well here we are again! I'm still frantically counting down to HBP (TWO DAYS TO GO!) and am very happy because I've seen a couple of promising clips. Also, I love David Yates because he has not been stupid and decided to cut Weasley's Wizard Wheezes as I was so afraid he might- YAY! I love Fred and George! Anybody with me?**

**Thanks so so so much to my lovely reviewers- you guys are amazing! I mean, seriously, I ask you to get me to 250 reviews and you get to 263! Next time, let's try for 280…….. Please! (see I'm being polite!) Thanks to everyone who reviewed since the last update: teamjakeward, LionsAndLambsMakeAnAwesomePair, amylily123, the evil angel, Dare2dream00, SparkleInTheSun, FrequentlyDazzled93, ChocolateGal16, Emzer92, HarryPotter'sCharmed, sweetdarkchild, Ally145, VeronicaD13, Aquaflame13, .Her, WeirdRandomHyperTwilightFREAK-, xoxokat, Twin of Alice, smartbookworm, Chibi Angel of the Uchiha, Wolfwhisperer, thetwilightsagaismylife, CleverBlast, ElphietheAlto31, LilPinkKitsune, NocturnalNoctowl, Alyssa the Twilight Lover, Morning-star999 and To die upon a kiss. Please please please keep up the great work, it gives me confidence and makes me feel appreciated!**

**OK, enough with my rambling already: Here's Chapter 17….**

**Love as always,**

**Ciara**

**x x x**

**Jake's POV:**

Now that the others knew about our 'little secret', things were way easier. I didn't have to worry about letting something slip, and they didn't look alarmed when Alice went all Trelawney on them. In fact, they thought the whole mythical-creature thing was pretty cool. I should've known. Witches and wizards are _weird_.

I mean, the school Head, Dumbledore, wasn't exactly normal, rocking the whole Santa via Weightwatchers look. I guess he must've been some sort of genius, cos everybody spoke about him in these kind of reverent tones, but at meals he looked kinda spaced out and he was forever sucking on sherbet lemons. Hardly a mark of maturity now, was it?

Then there was that Luna girl that Jasper and Alice were friends with in Ravenclaw. I thought I'd experienced the limit of girl craziness being in a pack with Leah Clearwater, but this girl almost made her look normal! She wandered around the place like nothing fazed her, wand stuck in her long blonde hair (I'm not usually very safety-conscious, but come on, that had to be a fire hazard. I mean, what if it sparked?!) and radishes dangling from her ears like she was the poster girl for going green or something.

Weirdness aside, life at Hogwarts was turning out to be pretty awesome. The morning of Halloween I came downstairs to eat my bodyweight in sausages, Nessie and Hazel in tow, and found that the Great Hall had been decorated for the occasion.

"Real hygienic," I grinned as hordes of live bats fluttered over the Hufflepuff table. "Hope one gets stuck in Blondie's hair. That'd just make my day. The things I could do with a vampire bat getting stuck in the leeches hair….."

"Jake," Nessie chastised. "Remember what Carlisle said. Do you really want to be scraping frog guts off the dungeon ceilings while the rest of us are in Hogsmeade having fun?"

That shut me up abruptly. I flopped down on the nearest bench at the long House table and began loading my plate with sausages and bacon.

"Ugh, how can you eat that at this hour?" Hazel groaned, sipping some orange juice.

I shrugged. "I'm hungry!"

"You're always hungry," teased Nessie, ruffling my hair so that it stuck up in every direction.

"Definitely an improvement," smirked Blondie, arm around Emmett's waist as they sat down at the Slytherin table without touching their food. Damn, why did she have to look so good in that shirt and jeans? Now I had no snappy comeback. I fumed as I inhaled my food, hoping for a chance of revenge later on.

Once I'd finished eating and Nessie had pushed her food around on her plate to make it look like she had eaten something and wasn't rocking a designer eating disorder, we met p with the rest of our motley crew for the trip to Hogsmeade. I wasn't expecting much. We were in the middle of nowhere. There wouldn't even be a Starbucks, since the place had an all-magical population. Oh joy.

Everybody was wearing normal clothes for the day, which were a welcome break from the robes which made us all look like Grim Reapers in Training. I don't think I've ever been so happy to see a pair of Converse.

We walked into Hogsmeade, since it was warm and the carriages smelt like hay. Nessie was grinning this pretty little grin, but when I stroked her hair and asked her what had her in such a good mood she just shrugged and sped up to walk with Ginny and Crazy Luna.

"That bad company are you?" Blondie teased in a lofty voice.

"_You're _talking to me, aren't you?"

"Only cos I feel sorry for you," she growled, with a sneer worthy of Malfoy.

"Ha ha, you're hilarious."

"Hey, we'll see you guys later," said Laura unexpectedly.

"Where're you off to?" Bella asked.

"Hazel's going on a date with Seamus Finnigan in half an hour in the Three Broomsticks. The girls are going to sit at a table a bit away from them, behind an old warlock smoking a pipe in case anything goes wrong and they have to intervene," Alice supplied.

"I still can't get used to that, it's so creepy," Hazel shivered. Alice shrugged nonchalantly.

"It'll go well. _Really _well," she grinned.

"See, I told you there was no need to worry," teased Emma as the three girls walked away down a side street.

We had just reached the outskirts of Hogsmeade when I noticed that everybody was staring at me and grinning. I half-wondered if I had something stuck in my teeth. Then a voice yelled "Hey Jake, long time no see, man!" I very nearly fainted. In fact, I only avoided it cos I knew it would make Blondie's day if I did. She'd probably draw on my face in permanent marker.

Seth Clearwater was standing in front of me, and just behind him were Quil and Embry. I gave a sort of strangled half-yelp, ignored Blondie's pig-like snort of laughter and rushed forward. There was a lot of hair ruffling and arm punching and knuckle bumping.

"Guys- what are you doing here?"

"What, you don't want us?" Quil attempted to sound offended, only he's no Oscar-winning actor so his face split into this goofy-looking grin, more Seth Cohen than Johnny Depp.

"Of course I do! But how? And where're the others?"

"Doggy-paddled," offered Embry. I heard Blondie mutter _'good one'_ grudgingly and sniggered. "And the rest of them are in some bar. The _Three Broomsticks_, I think?" he asked, looking expectantly at Harry and Co.

"Oh sorry," I grinned sheepishly. "Guys, these are Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Luna- hang on, where's Loony?"

"Wandered off somewhere saying something about Wrackspurts," Emmett shrugged.

"Figures. Anyway, everybody these are-"

"Let me guess, you're wolf buddies?" Ron sniggered.

"Yeah, actually." The grin slid off his face faster than Blondie confronted with thrift store clothes. "This is Quil Ateara, Embry Call and Seth Clearwater."

"Wow Seth, you've really grown!" exclaimed Bella, dashing forward to hug him. It was weird not to get all mad and transform into a wolf at the sight of a bloodsucker grabbing one of my best friends, but that's one of the perils of dating a half-vamp. You get used to them. They even stop smelling so bad after a while.

"Imprinted yet?"

"Emmett!" Alice scolded. "That's a really personal question."

"Have you?"

"Nope," Seth shrugged, laughing as Alice took a reproachful swipe at Emmett. "Still free and single."

"And Leah?"

"Jake, you were right man," shuddered Seth. "Newton's a total jerk."

I grinned appreciatively. I'd never liked Mike Newton, Leah's imprint. In fact, the night he'd made a complete ass of himself in front of Bella by vomiting everywhere had been one of the happiest of my life. Well, apart from the fact that I thought I was going crazy when I turned into a giant wolf and almost gored my dad. That, and the smell of vomit which lingered in the Rabbit for weeks. Stupid Newton.

"How's everybody?" asked Alice, who was grinning from ear to ear. At the sound of her voice, something triggered in my mind.

"I take it you knew they were coming?"

"Well, I tried to see around you to see what would happen today, but when this highly-anticipated excursion disappeared completely last night, I had an idea, yes."

"And you didn't think to tell me?" I demanded, glowering at her still smiling form. "Goddam pixie!"

"Watch it Jake," growled Jasper.

"Although I find your bickering thoroughly entertaining," yawned Blondie. "Can we get going? Standing in a dank little laneway for hours on end listening to you lot squabbling is not high on my list of priorities."

"Sure, sure," I agreed, too happy to even bother arguing. "Can you guys show us the way to the Three Broomsticks? The opportunity to freak out Newton is too good to resist."

"Your funeral," muttered Seth. I winced at the thought of Leah's anger. The girl could be downright scary when she wanted to be.

And so we set off, the werewolves (OK, not technically, but go with it for poetic license), the vampires and the wizards. Lovely.

Seth, Quil and I chatted about things back home (Paul and Rachel were engaged, Billy was doing good, Charlie still couldn't cook) and things here (classes were OK, most of the kids were nice, Blondie still annoyed the hell out of me). Meanwhile, Ron and Emmett were engaged in a heated discussion about baseball versus Quidditch. I really didn't fancy Ron's chances if it got violent. He probably weighed about as much as one of Emmett's arms. I could hear Hermione giving Embry the third degree about how imprinting worked and dozens of other complicated questions about the dynamics of shapeshifting that barely sounded like they were being asked in English. Poor kid. He looked more confused than Blondie when somebody tried to tell her about the concept of discount shopping.

"I-um…. I dunno really….. I don't really understand you…."

"That's the general feeling whenever Hermione opens her mouth," Harry assured him, before turning back to the rest of the group's spirited tirade against Snape. Hermione scowled, then began her questioning again as though there had been no interruption. I really felt for Embry, honest I did. The girl was like a detective on one of those TV crime dramas, interrogating the nervous suspect brutally because she knew he was going to crack and confess. I could see it now- _CSI: Hogwarts_ starring Hermione Granger as the token pretty female officer, with Argus Filch as her creepy sidekick. It'd probably be a hit… you know, if wizards had discovered the wonders of television.

Eventually, we got to the Three Broomsticks. Harry and Ron went to talk to Jimmy Peakes, Laura's Beating partner, while Hermione and Ginny made a beeline for Laura and Emma to check out how Hazel's date was going. Girls.

We found the rest of the Quileutes sitting crammed around three tables in the corner. Sam and Jared grinned at me, while Paul attempted to suck my sister's face off and I attempted not to strangle him for doing so. Leah looked happier than I'd seen her in ages, and even acted quite pleasant until I pulled Newton's chair out from under him. Then she bellowed at me, using some interesting swearwords.

"Ah, there's the Leah I love and irritate," I smiled sweetly as Newton clambered to his feet, spluttering and coughing. She gave me the finger, and I responded by jinxing her fingers together. It was just like old times, only this time I had magic on my side.

We passed a couple of hours catching up with everyone. Emily was expecting her first baby, much to Sam's delight, and was showing off her ring to Alice, Nessie and Rose, who were the only people who would appreciate it.

"Sorry we missed the wedding," Bella apologised. "Charlie was supposed to give you our gift, but no doubt he forgot." A chuckle ran through the gathering.

Jared and Kim were heading off to college together soon, and Paul informed me that he and Rachel had set a date, once they resurfaced for air. Quil was still at the 'best friend' stage with Claire. Jeez, the kid had gotten so big! She was still as wicked as ever though, and spent most of the time trying to squash Quil's nose. Nice.

Bella spent a lot of time apologising to Newton for not telling him she had been dating a bloodsucking leech, and also not telling him that she was one. Why she bothered explaining herself I have no idea, cos it didn't look to me like the idiot gave a damn what she was saying. He spent the entire time gazing lovingly at Leah. Ew. I mean, wasn't he afraid? Damn him for being her imprint. If anyone else had stared at her for that long she would have punched them by now.

"Well, it's been great catching up," said Sam, helping Emily to her feet. "But we can't stay. We've left Colin and Brady in charge of the rest of the troops, and that can't be going well."

"We'll visit again real soon," Seth promised. "See ya!"

And with that they were gone. I drained the last few drops of my Butterbeer, which was the nicest thing I'd ever tasted, and then we rounded up the gang. Harry and Ron wanted to go to Honeydukes sweetshop, and nobody else had any objections, so we headed off, leaving Laura and Emma still watching Hazel's back from behind the sleepy old warlock.

We were almost at the sweetshop when two people appeared out of thin air with a sound like a gunshot. I yelled and tripped over my own feet, causing Blondie to howl with laughter until I told her she had a hair out of place. It wasn't my fault; I just couldn't get used to all this magic crap. I mean come on, can you blame me? It _was_ freaky.

The newcomers were identical. I mean seriously identical. Like, down to the last freckle identical. They were short and stocky, but had the same flaming red hair and twinkling blue eyes as Ron and Ginny. Confirming my suspicion that they were related to them, Ginny hurtled forward into their arms, hugging them furiously.

"What are you two doing here?" Ron demanded, clutching at his heart. I guess, like me, he didn't like people suddenly appearing out of nothing. But he'd had seventeen years to get used to it. I was still a novice.

"Oh charming, Ronald, it's just splendid to see you too," said one of the twins, shaking his head and grinning in a way which reminded me irresistibly of Peeves the poltergeist.

"Honestly Fred," the other twin sighed. "Anyone would think he didn't want to see our new jokeshop."

"YOU BOUGHT ZONKO'S? Nobody ever tells me anything-"

"Now that's more like it, eh George?" smiled Fred. "Come little brother, the grand tour awaits. Oh, hello Harry, still saving the wizarding world from the Dark forces of You-Know-Who every other day? "

"Is that jacket dragonskin?" asked Hermione, interrupting before Harry had a chance to reply. "You know they're an endangered species-"

"Hermione please, the only thing that was endangered in the making of this jacket was the wizard who had to get past the other dragons to get at the Common Welsh Green whose skin was used once it died of old age. Poor chap broke three ribs and lost his pride when he was sent flying into a tree trunk," grinned George. "Now come along, or I'll get bored and ask someone else."

"Hold on," said Fred, holding up a hand and staring at the rest of us as though he'd just noticed us, which he had. "Who are all these people? I think I'd remember seeing them at Hogwarts…"

"These are the exchange students I told you about in my letter," said Ginny. "Jacob, Nessie, Emmett, Rose, Alice, Jasper, Bella and Edward meet my brothers, Fred and George."

"Nice to meet you," said George as he and his twin pumped each of our hands energetically in a way that reminded me of Willy Wonka out of Charlie and the chocolate Factory for reasons unknown. "Want to come too? I can't resist showing the place off."

And so we followed the excitable twins down the street. Honestly, they had just confirmed my original opinion that the wizarding world was a bit crazy. They bounced along on the soles of their feet like Tigger out of Winnie the Pooh, minus the springs and tended to speak in perfect unison or finish each others sentences, which I found extremely freaky.

"Here we are!" exclaimed Fred, stopping abruptly outside an eye-catching window display. In fact, eye-watering would be more accurate. "Come on, come on!"

It was officially the coolest place I'd ever been. The shop was stacked from floor to ceiling with all manner of joke products which could make Blondie's life a living hell. I grinned and scooped up a basket, tossing handfuls of Nose-Biting Teacups and Pondwater Perfume inside. Seriously, I was like a little kid at Christmas. The place was amazing.

"Hey girls, come take a look at the latest WonderWitch stock," called Fred. "New and improved Ten-Second Pimple Vanisher, just in this morning. I take it you'll be buying some Rosalie?"

I swallowed a laugh at the expression on Blondie's face. Fred and George were definitely my kind of guys. Anyone who loved to irritate Blondie was a friend of mine.

"These are cool," Ron advised me, picking up a box of what looked like flesh-coloured strings. "Extendable Ears. Eavesdropping made easy. Hey guys, how much for these?"

"Five Galleons," the twins chorused from across the shop.

"How much for me?"

"Five Galleons."

"But I'm your brother!"

"Oh yeah… better make it ten so. And don't you dare pocket anything. Our new Oriental Gloves give the _worst_ Chinese Burns…" Fred warned darkly.

"There's a customer here looking for a Smart-Answer quill, guys," called their shop assistant, a short girl with shoulder-length sandy-blonde hair and blue eyes dressed in dark turquoise robes. "But I think we're all out…"

"Coming Ciara," Fred called. "I'll see you guys later."

"Isn't that the girl from your year who helped you out with testing the Skiving Snackboxes?" asked Ginny interestedly.

"Yeah, she loves all things humour," said George conversationally. "We've been dating nearly a year."

"YOU'VE GOT A GIRLFRIEND?" Ron yelled. "This is so unfair, nobody ever tells me anything!"

"Oh grow up Ron," snapped Hermione. "It's not the end of the world, you know."

Their squabbling continued as I faded into a haze of happiness, surrounded by Canary Creams and trick wands and Portable Swamps. Fred and George Weasley were now officially my favourite people in the whole world. With their help, Blondie's life wouldn't be worth living………..

**Wow, that was a long chapter by my standards! I know I packed a lot in, but I don't want the story dragging on too much before the big finish! ****And I know I kind of cheated by quoting Fred and George from the HBP movie but I really liked that line! So, what did you think? Like the inclusion of the Quileutes? Like Fred and George? Oh, and apologies for putting myself in there, but I adore George and couldn't stop myself *evil grin* ! So don't forget to drop me a review…. let's make it to 280 if we can!**

**Love,**

**Ciara**

**x x x**


	19. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen**

**A/N:Hi again everyone! I'm back with a new chapter, and pretty quickly I might add! We didn't quite make the 280 mark, but 278 reviews isn't a bad effort at all, so I decided to reward the nice people who did review by updating earlier than expected! The rest of you: take note!**

**This chapter has two dedications: the first is to Emma (aka Emzer92) who I am sure I have dedicated a chapter to before anyway, but want to again because she got me on here. So if you like my work, it's really her you have to thank! The second is to amylily123, who has reviewed frequently and built up a good credit rating with me! Because of her good work, I listened when she made a request of me, and now I am going to grant it- by putting her in here somewhere. Amy, this one's for you, too! Hope you enjoy it!**

**As always, there are some people to be thanked. I adore my reviewers (hint hint), they are so great for dropping me a line. It really helps! So thanks to: LilPinkKitsune, amylily123, Emzer92, Ally145, HarryPotter'sCharmed, Alyssa the Twilight Lover, Dare2dream00, Twin of Alice, FrequentlyDazzled93, Wolfwhisperer, xoxokat, VeronicaD13, WeirdRandomHyperTwilightFREAK-, musicaldancer7700 and goldenrose37. You guys are the best. I hope other people start to copy you! Maybe we could try for 290 reviews this time? Is that fair?**

**Enough of my rambling! Let's get the story moving along!**

**Love as always,**

**Ciara**

**x x x**

**Nessie's POV:**

A week after our trip to Hogsmeade, the first Quidditch match of the season took place. The game was between Gryffindor and Slytherin, so in the run-up to the match, tempers flared. The enmity between the two houses was infamous, and neither team could stand the thought of losing.

From my point of view, this was an interesting contest. Mom and Dad would be playing against Rose and Emmett, which promised to be highly entertaining. The match was the only thing being discussed in the corridors and at mealtimes, with several students, including Jake, placing bets on the outcome.

"Gryffindor _have_ to win," he told me as we came out of Charms one afternoon. "Blondie will be disgustingly smug if they don't."

"Well then, you'll just have to hope Mom and Dad are up to the challenge, won't you?" I grinned spiritedly. "It's an interesting one, but I think Gryffindor have the edge."

"You do?"

"Yup. Overall, they seem to be the better team. Malfoy isn't a patch on Harry when it comes to Seeking, and Ginny's an excellent Chaser. I won't be surprised if she gets taken on professionally after school. I went down with Hazel to watch their practise session the other day, they look really good. I think your money's safe enough Jake."

"Thanks," he grinned, kissing my forehead. "We'll just have to wait and see."

We did so, and Gryffindor did eventually come out on top, albeit in a very close contest. Ron looked a little shaky in the goals, but he eventually overcame his nerves to play well enough. There was a nasty incident when Emmett accidentally concussed Laura, but she was alright in the end. All that bothered her was having to watch the rest of the match from the sidelines as the reserve Beater Richie Coote took her place as a precaution. The game had been on almost an hour and a half when Harry made a truly spectacular capture of the Golden Snitch, racing the length of the pitch on his Firebolt and catapulting into a fifty-foot dive, his feet skimming the ground as he grasped the Snitch in his clenched fist at the foot of the Sytherin goal hoops. It was incredible, and as Madam Hooch blew the whistle to signal the end of the match, the stands erupted. I could hear Luna Lovegood's lion hat roaring over the jubilant choruses of _'Weasley is our King'_ as the Gryffindor supporters mobbed their victorious team. It was almost as though they had already won the Cup; such was their delight at defeating Slytherin. Mom and Dad were raised onto the shoulders of the red-and-gold clad supporters, the new heroes after scoring ten goals apiece. Malfoy skulked away looking sour, and Rose looked almost as bitter as Jake hurried over to her, grinning from ear to ear.

"Hard luck Blondie," he said in a grave voice, struggling to maintain a straight face. "You battled hard, but in the end you were simply not good enou-"

"Shut it dog," she snarled back. "I'd have no qualms about dealing you a swift blow to the head with Emmett's bat. I think concussion would suit you- I like you when you're unconscious."

The Gryffindor team party could be heard long into the night, even from the depths of the castle where the Hufflepuff common room was situated. I sat in an armchair by the fire with Jake, Hazel and Amy, a pretty girl with silky black hair and flawless Asian features, who played Chaser on the team.

"Do you honestly think we can beat Ravenclaw?" I asked seriously. Our match was only a couple of weeks away, the last weekend in November.

"Without a doubt," Amy pressed. "We have the edge on them tactics-wise, and those new techniques we've been working on are really coming together. A couple more weeks of hard training, and I'd say we stand a really good chance."

"Agreed," added Hazel, nodding vigorously. "Our Sloth Grip Rolls are looking really good, and the Bludger Backbeat Jake and I have been trying is really starting to yield some dividends."

"The problem is Jasper," argued Jake, who hadn't really been paying attention. He was too busy counting his winnings from the bet he'd had on the game. "It's going to be damn hard to get the Quaffle past him Amy. I think your best bet is the Woollongong Shimmy, other wise scores'll be hard to get. You, Smith and Cadwallader will have to be on top of your game. So no pressure or anything."

"Very funny Jake," Amy grinned, getting to her feet. "I'm going to head up to bed. I want to be fighting fit for training tomorrow."

"Good idea," agreed Hazel, also standing up. "Team, bed! You're going to need your sleep, what with the regime I've got lined up for tomorrow."

After several weeks of hard training, both early morning and late night, the day of our first Quidditch match arrived. I woke early and headed down to breakfast with Jake, who was looking vaguely green and refused breakfast when I offered him a plate.

"It's not like you to get nervous," I soothed, running my fingers through his hair. "What's up?"

"I've never done anything like this before," he whispered. "Not in front of hundreds of people. What if I mess up?"

"You won't mess up," said Hazel, sliding onto the bench beside us. "You've put in the effort at training, you just can't let the occasion get to you. You can do this. Now eat up. I don't want my Beating partner fainting from lack of food. A fall like that would be nasty. Come on, eat up. We're heading down to the pitch in about ten minutes."

Once I had wheedled Jake into eating some dry toast, we made our way down to the pitch. The rest of the team was already in the dressing room as we hurried in and changed into our canary-yellow Quidditch robes. Hazel was pacing anxiously and the Keeper, Grace, was slapping her gloves together nervously. Jake started drumming his bat off his shin pads until I took his hand in mine and gave him a glowing look.

"You can do this," I smiled, kissing his cheek. "Stop worrying."

Hazel delivered her captain's speech, and then it was time.

We made our way onto the huge pitch to a mixture of jeers and cheers. The Ravenclaws, dressed in sky-blue, were already waiting for us. Jasper shot me a grin from under his protective headgear.

"Captains, shake hands," instructed Madam Hooch, and Hazel had her fingers crushed by the Ravenclaw Captain. "Mount your brooms."

The whistle blew, and we were off. My sharp eyes scanned the pitch for any sign of the elusive winged Snitch. Once or twice I thought I caught a glimpse of it, but it was just the bronze piping on the Ravenclaw uniforms.

It was a fair contest; the teams were evenly matched for the most part. Every so often I caught a snatch of the commentary, which was being provided by Emma.

"And it's Ravenclaw in possession, Chaser Deirdre Murphy bearing down on goals. She gets ready to aim at Kennedy's hoops and- but wait! A brilliantly-timed Bludger! It's hit into her path by new Hufflepuff Beater Jacob Black and Cadwallader takes the Quaffle as Hufflepuff counter-attack…"

I did a loop-de-loop in elation. That would boost Jake's confidence no end; I could spot him grinning at me as he pelted a Bludger towards one of the opposing Beaters.

"Cadwallader to Smith, Smith for Hufflepuff with the Quaffle, he's making great progress. Back to Cadwallader, he passes it on. It's the first test for Ravenclaw Keeper Hale, he dives, misses- HUFFLEPUFF SCORE! They lead ten points to zero…"

Amy punched the air vigorously as she swooped around in celebration of her goal. I grinned to myself as I skimmed around the pitch, still searching for the Snitch. The game continued at a fast and frantic pace, and it was all I could do to keep concentrating on searching. Hufflepuff were playing like a team possessed; it seemed we could do nothing wrong. Jake and Hazel broke up several Ravenclaw attacks with well-placed Bludgers, while the Chasers were on fire. Smith and Cadwallader both scored, and Amy added four more goals to her tally. Meanwhile, Grace was defending her goalhoops fiercely; very little made it past her. She even managed to save a penalty, her figure eight loop putting off Chaser Bradley as she pulled off a magnificent stop.

But Ravenclaw were no easy opposition. It was a tight game, and Jasper was holding well in front of the hoops. He was saving shots left, right and centre, and there was very little he could have done about any of the goals.

"Hufflepuff lead seventy points to fifty," Emma's voice called, drifting over the pitch.

Twenty points. It was a slim lead. Two shots on goal and we would be level. Then if Ravenclaw got the Snitch….

Determined, I swerved to avoid a Bludger and began another loop of the pitch, shouting encouragement to the team as I went. The figures were just blue and yellow blurs as I flew past, not even able to distinguish who was who. And then, out of nowhere, I saw it.

The Snitch was hovering near Jasper's foot.

I pelted towards him, lying flat to my broom's handle, urging it on. But the Ravenclaw Seeker had seen it too. We were neck and neck as we flew forwards in a streak of wood and uniform. I could hear the crowd roaring excitedly, heard Emma somewhere in the distance announce that Murphy had gotten another goal for Ravenclaw.

"Come on, come on," I encouraged desperately, jostling with the opposing Seeker. Almost there. I was so close. I reached out my hand, fingers flexing towards the Snitch, still fluttering in mid-air. I could feel the other Seeker's hand scrabbling at mine as we vied for the premium position….

"She's got the Snitch! Renesmee Cullen has captured the Snitch! HUFFLEPUFF WIN!"

I hardly even noticed Emma's commentary. My fingers were numb; the Snitch fluttering weakly in my palm barely even registered. What I did notice was Jake racing towards me, beaming from ear to ear. He grabbed me in a bone-crunching hug, and I felt several thumps as the rest of the team hit us. The feeling was incredible; we had done it. We had won. Nobody had really expected us to- Hufflepuff, the eternally nice, never competitive team. But we had done it. We had persevered against the odds and the tiny golden ball beating its wings weakly against my hand was proof of that. It may have been just one match. It wasn't the Cup Final. But it mattered.

This was a feeling I would cherish forever.

Suddenly, I was hoisted into the air onto the shoulders of the rapturous Hufflepuff supporters. Professor Sprout, our Head of House, was cheering along with the rest of them, a badger-adorned scarf tied around her neck. Hazel was crying, proud streaming down her face as she clapped me on the back. And best of all, Jake was kissing me fiercely and passionately, laughing contentedly through the kiss.

"I can't wait to tease Blondie," he murmured. I smacked him across the head.

"Honestly, is that all you can think of when your team have just won a Quidditch match?"

"Yup."

"Ugh." I pressed my lips to his again. "_Now_ is it all you can think of?"

It was a day I wouldn't forget. I was certain of that.


	20. Chapter 19

**Chapter Nineteen**

**A/N:Hello again everybody! OK, so I didn't think I would get the chance to add a chapter today because of a little thing called THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE MOVIE!!! I'm going to see it later, and I've got a million and one things to do, but I decided to be nice and give you all a chapter instead!**

**Firstly, kudos to Alyssa the Twilight Lover for putting her stamp on things. She gave me some good advice/threatened me about the ending of the story…. Alyssa, I'll definitely take it into consideration… That's all I'm saying!**

**OK reviewers, we're so close to hitting the big 300, so let's get there with this chapter, OK? You hit your target last time (with a 7 review surplus I might add!) so I know you're all kind and lovely enough to do it this time!**

**Thanks to my wonderful reviewers: Emzer92, ChocolateGal16, Aquaflame13, Wolfwhisperer, LilPinkKitsune, Alyssa the Twilight Lover, FrequentlyDazzled93, VeronicaD13, HarryPotter'sCharmed, Dare2dream00, xTWILIGHTx, xoxokat, To die upon a kiss, Chibi Angel of the Uchiha, wallytops, .Her, Twin of Alice and sweetdarkchild. Please please please keep reviewing! It makes me happy!**

**Now, let us continue with our tale…**

**Love as always,**

**Ciara**

**x x x**

**Bella's POV:**

The weather in Britain was officially awful. As November faded into December, the skies darkened to a murky, stormy grey and rainfall became common. On one such overcast day, Edward and I were sitting in a classroom at lunchtime. The shower of rain which had begun at breakfast had become a downpour which in turn developed into a deluge. As a result, nobody was allowed into the grounds for our own safety. The Lake was flooding its banks and was thus considered a health hazard.

So there we were, sitting in the classroom among the other students, gazing glumly out the window as the rain fell in impenetrable sheets outside. In front of us, several excitable Fifth Year girls, including a girl named Romilda Vane who I recognised from our common room, were discussing makeup tips. From what I could gather as I attempted to translate there high-pitched, giggling shrieks into something resembling English, they were trying to impress Carlisle. I made a mental note to tip him off. Though I didn't doubt he could let them down gently, I knew he would not be best pleased having a surprise like that sprung on him at the start of a Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson.

To our left, a cluster of fellow Seventh Years, among them Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott, were speaking about revision for the N.E.W.T exams. Ernie appeared to be frightening the life out of the rest of them by hounding them about how many hours of revision they were doing each day. Many of them seemed to find revising to be a foreign concept, and a few were looking deeply uneasy as it dawned on them that their exams weren't really that long away. I was glad I didn't have to worry about revision. That was one of the best things about being a vampire: total recall. I wouldn't have to open a textbook for revision.

Just as Peeves floated along the ceiling and emptied an entire ink bottle over the head of a timid-looking First Year, who subsequently burst into floods of tears, Alice skipped into the classroom looking positively elated. She was practically bouncing on the soles of her feet.

"What's got you in such a good mood?" I asked, a little grumpily. Bad weather did not help my spirits. Edward put a comforting arm around my shoulders.

"I've just had the most wonderful idea!" she whispered ecstatically. "We're going to have a party! The last day of school before the holidays, you know. Everyone will dress up, and we'll decorate the Great Hall, and I could hire a choir of wood nymphs! Oh, it'll be perfect! I-"

"Alice, don't you think you're forgetting one tiny little detail?" I asked, torn between annoyance and amusement. "You'd have to ask permission from Dumbledore for something like this."

Alice closed her eyes for a moment, becoming completely still. Then, before anyone else could notice, she opened them again. They were shining brightly and a grin split her beautiful features.

"He'll say yes," she beamed. "Come on Bella, you can help me plan it! Of course, we'll have to do something with your hair for the occasion, and I really think you should order some heels. Madam Malkin's does deliveries you know, I'm sure we could find a catalogue around here somewhere…"

"Alice, you know how I hate dressing up-"

But my complaints fell on deaf ears. Lost in visions of silk and satin, Alice hauled me from my seat, gabbling on about hangings and food and how she would have to ask Hagrid about trees. I twisted around desperately to face Edward, my face a mask of horror.

"Help me," I mouthed, but he was supposedly so deep in conversation with Ernie & Co that he didn't notice me. I heaved a huge sigh, resigned to my fate, and reluctantly followed Alice down the corridor.

~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~

After several weeks helping Alice, the last day of school finally arrived. News of the party had spread like wildfire through the school, and everybody was waiting impatiently for classes to end. As the majority of students would be going home for the Christmas holidays, the party was a chance to hang out and exchange gifts with the friends they wouldn't see until after the holidays. Practically the whole school was coming, and rumours about what was in store were all that could be heard all day. It was so bad that Professor Flitwick abandoned his vain attempts to teach us about Concealment Charms and allowed the whispered conversations to continue without interruption.

"I heard the Weird Sisters are playing," I heard Parvati Patil inform Lavender Brown.

"Really? And did you hear that Neville's going with Hannah Abbott?"

The main topic of conversation among the boys was also who was going with who.

"You better not try and capture Ginny underneath the mistletoe," Ron warned Harry, who grinned sheepishly and hastily changed the subject.

The speculation and gossip continued for about twenty minutes. Then the bell rang, bringing classes to a close.

"Merry Christmas!" squeaked Professor Flitwick, as the class stampeded from the room. Before I could run away, Alice had grabbed me by the hand and was hauling me towards Gryffindor Tower for my 'makeover'. The very thought sent shivers down my spine.

"Alice, maybe they need help setting the Hall up, I should go…" I trailed off weakly, looking hopefully at her.

"No chance. Carlisle's enlisted a couple of the teachers to help out, they've got it all under control. Don't worry Bella, all you have to concentrate on is sitting very still when I tell you to and picking a pair of shoes."

I groaned loudly, but Alice feigned temporary deafness as she sang the password (_Tinsel)_ to the Fat Lady, guardian of the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Alice, you're not a Gryffindor, you can't-"

"McGonagall gave me permission," she shrugged. "I told her it was a fashion emergency."

Alice danced along, clearly enjoying the atmosphere, and pulled me upstairs.

She, of course, was ready in a flash, wearing a form-fitting dress in indigo which skimmed over her non-existent curves and kicked out at the end in a pool of fabric around her tiny dancer's feet. She pointed her wand at her hair, and in seconds, it was perfectly styled. She looked like a miniature fashion model. Fastening the clasp on a breathtaking silver chain, she turned to me with a demonic glint in her eye.

"Right," she grinned wickedly, flexing her fingers in a way that did nothing to make me feel any better. "Let's get to work."

It seemed like she was at it for hours, though she claimed it took less than three quarters of an hour. Eventually, after much attention to detail on her part, and much squirming and several failed escape attempts on mine, Alice took a step back, nodding her head appreciatively. She tossed her head and folded her arms contentedly.

"Oh, I _am_ good," she sighed nonchalantly, a tiny smile playing on her red-stained lips. "Come on Bella, take a look."

Cautiously, I got to my feet. It wasn't that I couldn't balance in these six-inch bronze-coloured peep-toe stilettos; my vampire senses made that all too easy. It was just that I didn't see the point of them. What was wrong with a pair of plain ballet flats? Rolling my eyes, I crept towards the mirror, dreading what I would see when I looked at my reflection. Dressing up was definitely not my favourite pastime.

Reluctantly, I forced my gaze upwards onto the mirror's reflective surface. My breath caught in my chest.

"Alice," I whispered in a hushed voice. "How, I mean…"

I trailed off. Words failed me. Standing before me was a creature I did not recognise. She wore a calf-length powder-blue dress with a plunging neckline that clung seductively to her body. Bronze detailing on the bodice matched her shoes and the old-fashioned locket tied around her long neck. Thick waves of chocolate-brown hair curled softly towards her elbows, framing a face full of life and energy. Topaz eyes burned brightly there as an incredulous smile played on her full, red lips. She was beautiful.

"Alice, I hate to admit it but-"

"But you look fabulous, yes I know," said Alice in a bored voice. "You really need to learn to trust me, you know. Come on, let's head down. Fashionably lat is one thing, but anything over a half an hour late to your own party is pushing it."

And so we hurried down to the Entrance Hall, where we met up with Edward and Jasper, both of whom looked dashing in classic black tuxedos and were attracting a lot of attention from giggling girls, much to their dates' chagrin.

"You look incredible," breathed Edward, leaning in close and kissing my exposed neck.

"Thanks. It's all Alice's doing, of course."

"Nonsense. She couldn't do anything without a good canvas to work on now, could she?"

I beamed up at him and offered him my arm. He took it gladly and we floated into the Great Hall.

Although I had seen all the plans when I was helping Alice, I hadn't seen the finished product. It was breathtaking. The Great hall didn't even look like the Great Hall. The House tables had all disappeared, replaced by dozens of small tables with shimmering silver tablecloths and matching chairs. House elves dressed in snowy-white towels stamped with the school crest wandered around carrying gilded trays of drinks and snacks. A dozen gargantuan Christmas trees stood around the edges of the space, all of them magically turned white or silver. The enchanted ceiling had been bewitched so that snow fell from it, never actually reaching the ground but dissolving before it got the chance to. A sylph-like choir of wood nymphs draped in silver gossamer sang in melodic, lilting voices to set the mood. In the middle of the room was a large dance floor, which at the moment was filled with excited students staring at the various aspects of the design for the party/ball.

Edward and I were just going to talk to Rose and Emmett, who were both looking very good, Rose in a daring red number and Emmett, like the other boys, in a dark tux, when Professor Dumbledore took to the podium where the staff table usually was. Immediately, silence fell like a blanket over the party.

"Welcome to our Christmas party," he called, in a voice which carried without amplification. "Before we begin, I would like to thank Alice Cullen and her family for all their hard work in making the Great Hall look so magical, pardon the pun, tonight. I think you will all agree, they have done a marvellous job." There was an outburst of frivolous applause and whistling. "Tonight is an opportunity to let your hair down and have fun. Enjoy yourselves, and to those of you who will not be remaining at Hogwarts during the holidays, Merry Christmas!"

There was another smattering of applause, which soon grew wild as the famous wizard band The Weird Sisters trooped onto the stage. To me, they looked rather strange in their ripped black robes, and they were incredibly hairy, but judging by the reception they got they were very popular with wizarding teens. As they struck up an upbeat number, Edward hauled me into the middle of the dance floor.

"Edward, no," I protested as he began twirling me around expertly. No doubt he had been a world-champion ballroom dancer in his time, or something of the sort. "Edward, stop, you know I hate…" But I trailed off as I looked up into his perfect features, losing myself in his liquid gold eyes. I forgot all about the fact that we were dancing, and let him sweep me this way and that, loving the feeling of his hands on my waist.

Nessie and Jake whirled past us, and I paused to look at them. My daughter looked so grown up, her perfect features slightly flushed as Jake pulled her in close to him. Her bronze curls were piled on top of her head in complicated up-do, and she wore a floor-length Grecian gown, purest white with gold detailing. She looked like an angel, and I felt a surge of maternal pride as I watched her laughing happily in Jake's arms.

Edward moved me around the floor with effortless grace, his feet performing complicated moves which I tried my best to mimic. As we spun towards the corner I noticed Hazel, a vision in emerald with a festive bow adorning her curls, leaning into Seamus under the mistletoe. Nearby, Emma and Dean were performing a complicated little jive thing, while Hannah Abbott winced as Neville continuously tread on her toes.

Ron looked as though he couldn't believe his luck, gazing rapturously at Hermione as they revolved slowly on the spot. A little way away, Luna was dancing on her own, swaying from side to side. She was wearing a startling silver dress with a large flower pinned to the strap, but apart from that she looked quite nice. I saw her smile dreamily at Ginny, who was arm-in-arm with Harry. Her flaming red hair whirled around her as she danced, contrasting nicely with the pale gold of her dress. Harry had even attempted to make his hair lie flat for the occasion, I noticed. I grinned to myself.

The party continued long into the night. Occasionally a couple of teachers would join the festivities, but the students, who were clearly uncertain what to do when teachers started behaving like normal people, gave them a wide berth. Edward and I sat down every so often, to give the impression that we were tiring. After all, humans could not dance endlessly without a break. Then we sat at a table away from the hustle and bustle of the dance floor, hand in hand. Sometimes we spoke in soft voices, other times we simply revelled in each other's touch. It was so nice to spend so much time just with Edward.

Too soon, the lead singer of the Weird Sisters announced the last dance of the evening. It was a slow song, much to the delight of many of the girls present, and the indignation of their partners, who seemed very unsure of what to do. Edward took my hand and led me to the middle of the floor. I slipped my arms up around his neck as his slid into place around my waist. We rocked slowly from side to side, turning on the spot every so often. Edward's eyes were locked on my own, and I couldn't tear my gaze away. In fact, I didn't want to.

Just as the song ended, a cascade of Fred and George's fireworks exploded overhead. Our gaze broke as I stared up at them in wonder, and then fronds of mistletoe began to creep down from the ceiling as per Alice's instructions to Professor McGonagall earlier.

Edward grasped my chin gently in his hand and tipped my face towards him. I smiled softly and let myself over to the kiss. How long we stood there I could not tell, but the tingling sensation in my stomach never went away the entire time. Eventually, we broke apart and I grinned dizzily up at Edward.

"Merry Christmas," he breathed, and began to kiss me again. I closed my eyes, deciding that this would be the perfect Christmas present…………

**Sorry if it was a bit cheesy, I'm a sucker for romance! Please tell me what you think by reviewing!!!**


	21. Chapter 20

**Chapter Twenty**

**A/N:OK everybody, here we are again! I'm so sorry I haven't updated sooner, but I've had so much to do that I haven't had a lot of time and I was focusing a little bit on another story…**** The point is, I'm back now!**

**Good news: I think everyone will agree, HBP was amazing! Best Potter film yet in my opinion, and Rupert Grint was fabulous! He's my new favourite actor now! Plus, the New Moon trailer showed before the movie. Yay!**

**Bad news (or is it?): We're very near the end of Blurring the Lines. After this, there are only three chapters left! Are you happy? Sad? Indifferent? Tell me!**

**As always, kudos to those lovely people we call reviewers: AnnabethChase5450, LilPinkKitsune, Chibi Angel of the Uchiha, WeirdRandomHyperTwilightFREAK-, Twin of Alice, Wolfwhisperer, Lady Lily of Darkness, Dare2dream00, xoxokat, VeronicaD13, amylily123, musicaldancer7700, Alyssa the Twilight Lover, HarryPotter'sCharmed, .Her, xh8-the-famx, To die upon a kiss, Becca Winchester 00x, FrequentlyDazzled93, wallytops, ELAELAELA, ChocolateGal16, xxsecretwriterxx, Team Rosalie, sweetdarkchild, lilyalice, eleonerhermione hale and XmAinStReAmPuNkBoRdErLinEeMoX . I asked you to help me get to 300 reviews- you made it to 327!!! You guys are amazing, I love you all and keep up the good work!**

**On now with our not-so-thrilling (or at least, not yet) tale…**

**Love as always,**

**Ciara**

**x x x**

**/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/**

**Jake's POV:**

I woke up Christmas morning blinded by light as Nessie ripped open the curtains in my dormitory, which was empty except for me. And now, my crazy girlfriend. I scrunched up my face as the light hit my eyes. Not pleasant. I groaned and threw a pillow at Nessie. Which, of course, she dodged, being a freaky half-vampire with near perfect reflexes. Then, to top it all off, she jumped onto my bed, bouncing excitedly up and down. I was _so_ glad the rest of my roomies were spending the holidays at home with their folks. I'd never hear the end of it if they saw my girlfriend jumping up and down like an excitable six year old. And OK, technically she _was_ an excitable six year old, but they didn't know that, did they?

"Morning sunshine," Nessie trilled, ruffling my hair cheerfully. Honestly, I loved the girl to bits, but she could be pretty damn annoying when she wanted to. She just _had_ to be a morning person.

"Go away," I groaned, burying my head under the pillow which hadn't been fired at Nessie. "I'm tired."

"Oh, and Merry Christmas to you, too," Nessie pouted, hopping lightly onto the floor and walking away with her nose in the air. "If you're so _tired_ you won't want your Christmas presents, will you?"

"Hey now, I never said that!" I grinned, hurriedly jumping out of bed and diving at the little pile of gifts which had been delivered in the night. "You can never be too tired for Christmas presents!"

Nessie smiled, a glowing grin which stretched right across her face, and rolled her eyes in a very Rosalie-esque way. "I'll go get mine, wait for me, 'k?"

"Depends how long you take."

She picked my pillow up from where it had fallen on the floor and fired it at my head with all the precision and accuracy of a military-trained weapons expert. I was still rubbing my forehead when she came back with an armful of colourfully-wrapped gifts.

Then, it was more like two excitable six year olds.

There were a couple of things that had been mailed from the rez. Billy sent money (always handy), Seth sent a mix CD he'd made, along with the snaps from Emily and Sam's wedding tucked inside the Clearwater family Christmas card (Seth grinning like a loon, Sue smiling and Leah scowling, all dressed in dorky festive jumpers) and the rest of the guys sent a top hat with a stuffed rabbit inside (not remotely funny, but at least they tried.

Bella had gotten me a new pair of Converse, as well as a note informing me that if I morphed while wearing them she would personally kill me. Edward, who I had disliked for so long, got me some really good CDs… I hoped I'd still like them by the time we got back to Forks. It sucked not being able to use my iPod at Hogwarts. Alice and Jasper had clubbed together to get me an expensive-looking leather jacket. Again, it came with a note threatening torture and death, not necessarily in that order, if I morphed while wearing it. Stupid smug bloodsuckers.

Emmett got me a new Beater's bat. After looking at Blondie's 'present' I guessed it would come in handy. A dog bowl? Hardly original, and quite offensive if you're a sensitive werewolf/shapeshifter. So really, Emmett had been pretty damn thoughtful. The Beater's bat wouldn't cause any lasting damage. Just a great big dent in Blondie's ego, which was absolutely fine by me.

Harry and Ron had gotten me a huge package of Zonko's products, while Hermione got me a huge book called _Quidditch Through the Ages_. It looked like a good read. Or a good paperweight. Emma and Laura got me a hamper of sweets from Honeydukes, and Hazel got me a Metro Station t-shirt. That was something I would treasure.

And Carlisle and Esme got me this magic mirror thing. The note said they'd sent the other one of the pair to the rez, so I could talk to the guys (and Leah) whenever I wanted. That was awesome.

The last gift was from Nessie. She went really quiet as I reached for it, and her skin wasn't so much roses-on-china as fire engine red.

"What's up?" I asked, sliding my finger under the seal and shooting her a furtive glance out of the corner of my eye. I noticed her gulp.

"Nothing," she said, a little too quickly.

"_Ness_," I pressed, nudging her. "Tell me."

"Ijustopenedyoursandthelocket'ssobeautifulandpoignantthatI'mafraidminewillsuckincomparison," she gasped in one breath. I stared at her.

"In English please."

Nessie took a deep breath and, staring fixedly at the floor, spoke at a pace a normal person could understand. "I just opened yours, and the locket's so beautiful and poignant that I'm afraid mine will suck in comparison."

I took her chin in my huge hand, and forced it upwards gently so that she had no choice but to look me in the eye. Then I kissed her forehead.

"You're one of the smartest people I know," I said quietly. "But sometimes you can be really dumb, Ness. How could you think I wouldn't like anything you picked out for me?"

"Open it before you go making any grand speeches."

Just to shut her up, I did. And, obviously, I was blown away. Because everything Nessie did blew me away. Because she was Nessie. And she knew exactly how to make me smile.

"Oh Ness," I breathed, staring at the collage in my hands. It was all I could say. The collage was made up of photos of us, just us, together. In some pictures, Nessie was a tiny toddler sitting on my shoulders. In others, she was a kid with bouncy ponytails grinning as I pushed her on the swings. In the most recent, she was the most beautiful young woman in the world, her perfect lips pressed to mine. That was my favourite.

"OK, OK, I'm a self-conscious idiot," Nessie grinned, getting to her feet and sticking out a hand to help me up. "Help me fasten the clasp on this locket, and then we can go down to breakfast."

My stomach gave a rumble louder than Blondie when somebody messed up her hair. Nessie snorted with laughter and we headed downstairs.

/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/

When we got to the Great Hall, we found that all the House tables were gone, replaced with one small table in the middle of the room. It made sense, I guess. There was only me, the Cullens and Harry & Co. left at school over the holidays.

"Hey you two, Merry Christmas!" Alice sang in her bubblegum-pop, sweet-as-cotton-candy voice, looking up from stroking Jasper's hair.

"Same to you," we chorused, sliding onto seats beside them. The ceiling was snowing again, as it had been on and off for the last few days.

"Hey Blondie, did you like your present?" I called across the table, where she was sucking some serious face with Emmett. Honestly, the girl saves him from a vicious bear and he ends up in love with _her._ I think I'd take the bear.

"Oh yeah, dog," she drawled, in a manner very similar to Malfoy. "A grow-your-own warts kit. Very thoughtful."

"What can I say, I just figured you acted so much like a witch already, you might as well go the whole hog."

"Hey!" Hermione scolded, smacking my arm with some new book her parents had sent her. "Less of the smart comments about witches, thank you very much."

"Sure, sure," I said pleasantly as I slurped down some hot chocolate, complete with mini-marshmallows.

After breakfast, we headed out into the grounds, armed with hats, scarves, gloves and a couple of Fred and George's new, improved Dungbombs. The snow was getting pretty heavy, and it was nice and crisp on the ground. All of this added up to a very pretty scene for next year's Christmas card photos. Or, in our case, a kinda violent snowball fight.

"Alright troops," said Emmett, striding up and down the line once he'd been elected as our team captain. He had a grin on his face which could only be described as pure evil. I mean, seriously, he was like the spawn of Satan or something. "Here's the plan: We take down the strongest soldiers first, leaving us with the easy targets to pick off at the end."

"I like it," chimed in Ginny. What the hell was with people and competitiveness when it came to snowball fights? "Who's taking on who?"

Emmett glared shrewdly at our opponents- Blondie, Jasper, Edward, Bella, Hermione, Ron, Emma and Hazel-, sizing them up. After a minute or so, he turned back to us, gathering us into a team huddle.

"OK, they've got an extra player, but I think we've got the edge, strategy-wise." I couldn't conceal a snort. Come on, since when had Emmett been the king of strategising? He took a swipe at my head, then continued. "Edward and Jasper are going to be their strongest players. Alice, try to predict their moves and we'll take them down. Jake, Rose is all yours-"

"You've just made my day," I grinned wickedly. Damn, now _I _was getting into the evil competitiveness thing. Oh well. I was past caring now that it involved killing Blondie.

"Yeah, I know," said Emmett in a bored voice, interrupting my happy visions of causing Blondie immeasurable pain and humiliation. "Anyway, as I was saying, Ness, you can totally take Bella down. She's your mom, she's practically a geriatric."

"What does that make you, Mr. Born-in-1915?" Bella teased from across the way.

"Respect your elders, missy," Emmett countered, drawing himself up to his considerable full height. "I'm not going to engage in any mind-games with the enemy." He lowered his voice conspiratorially. "OK Nessie, now you really better take her out."

"I'm on it," Nessie grinned. "Maybe then she'll regret not letting me learn to drive."

"Then if Harry takes Ron, Ginny and Laura can definitely take Emma, Hermione and Hazel. Hermione'll be more of a hindrance than a help, with her coordination. Everybody know what they're doing?" We all nodded seriously, not a hint of a joke left. Emmett had a mad glint in his eye that made even me, who had chronic foot-in-mouth disease, shut the hell up. The guy was freaking scary. "OK then. Let's do this. Go team!"

We did a cheesy little group high-five thing, then broke apart and began to gather our ammunition. I set my sights on Blondie, and then the battle commenced.

I had to admit it; Emmett was right. We did have the upper hand on strategy. Edward obviously knew exactly what we were planning before we did it, but Alice knew what they were going to do even before they knew themselves. So our strategy was the thing which tipped the contest in our favour.

A well-timed toss from Ginny sent Hermione crumpling into a snow drift, and while Ron was distracted with stopping her from choking on snow, Harry got him from behind. Laura felled Emma and Hazel in quick succession before taking a heavy hit to the face that left her choking and spluttering. Blondie clearly thought she would be easy pickings then, but I came up behind her and smushed a handful of snow in her hair. Nice. Her choice of swearwords was very impressive.

"Emmett, duck!" Alice called, as Jasper took aim at his brother. She wound up like a baseball pitcher before releasing a rapid shot that caught her husband squarely between the eyes. Emmett then hit Edward, who was busy fretting over Bella. God, talk about over protective.

In retaliation, Edward hit Nessie with his own snowball. I growled and dropped my ammo, running at him in an attempt to rugby tackle him into submission. But, being a mind reader, he dodged and sent my flying into a tree trunk. He wrestled me to the ground and whispered teasingly in my ear, "Now who's overprotective?"

Stupid smart leech.

"Get out of my head," I muttered, throwing him off me and taking off in pursuit of Blondie, who was attempting to wring out her hair a little way away.

Our team won convincingly, of course, and Emmett and I were feeling decidedly smug as we traipsed back inside once the snow turned into a blizzard and it was getting hard to see. Well, for those of us who didn't have perfect 20-20 vision. The vamps were only being polite. They could probably have played in the pitch dark, being all perfect.

"This isn't over, pup," Blondie scowled, stalking past me to clean up before Christmas dinner.

"Just how I like it," I retaliated sweetly. "Be careful, or I might force some human food down your throat at dinner."

I dodged into the downstairs corridor to the Hufflepuff common room before she could come up with a clever comeback. Nicely done, 1-0 to me.

A couple of minutes later I headed up to the Great Hall for Christmas dinner. We all gathered around the smaller table, drinking eggnog and eating turkey and chipolatas and, in the Cullens' case, making polite conversation while looking mildly disgusted by the food on offer.

After several helpings of trifle and pulling a couple of Cribbage's wizard crackers, which gave me a heart attack when they popped with a noise like cannon fire, Nessie and I were sitting curled up by the fire in the deserted Hufflepuff common room. Hazel had already gone up to her dormitory after writing a letter home, and now we had the room to ourselves. Call me soft, but I loved just sitting there, holding Nessie tight, talking about nothing. It wasn't my fault; blame it on the imprinting.

"Ness," I murmured softly, kissing the corners of her lips.

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

She laughed, a reaction I hadn't exactly been expecting. "I sure hope so, it'd be a bit extreme of you to move in with me and my family if you just liked me," she quipped.

"Shut up," I groaned, cringing. There was a moment's silence, then-

"I love you too Jake."

/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/

The next few days passed in the same sort of way- pulverising Blondie at snowball fighting, teasing Blondie and fighting with Blondie. Pretty normal. There was also a lot of hanging around with Nessie. The light at the end of the tunnel that was living around Blondie.

A couple of days later, the rest of the students returned. Suddenly, the school was full of squealing teenage girls and numbskull guys again. Fabulous. I was missing the quiet time already.

Still, it was nice enough to get back into our routine. When did I get so domesticated? Routine? Ugh, Esme really was starting to rub off on me.

We were all sitting on a couple of rocks beside the lake, watching Emmett throwing scraps to the giant squid. I was arguing happily with Blondie about the general stupidity of blondes. Edward and Bella were staring into each other's eyes in that gormless way they had, like star-crossed lovers or something. Nessie was talking spiritedly to the others, and Alice and Jasper were playing chess on a portable chess board. Alice, of course, was winning. Alice always won. That was one of the advantages of being a psycho/psychic.

All of a sudden, everything changed. Alice was just about to call checkmate, when her hand fell and she knocked over half the remaining pieces. That should have tipped me off immediately. Vampires never do anything by accident. In fact, vampires don't do accidents, period.

"Alice," said Jasper urgently, tossing the board aside and taking her hands in his. "Alice, what is it?"

Bella was having much the same one-sided conversation with Edward, shaking him and repeating his name. Neither of them seemed to notice anything but whatever Alice was seeing and Edward was picking out of her head. Emmett stopped feeding the squid. Blondie and I shut up, and didn't even glare at each other. Even Harry & Co figured out that something was really wrong.

We all stared anxiously at the pair of them, waiting impatiently for them to tell us what the hell was going on. Then they spoke in perfect unison.

"They're coming."

I'm sure I wasn't the only one getting a sense of déjà vu. It was freaking creepy, it reminded me so much of the time those friendly Volturi decided to come calling.

"Who's coming, Alice?" Jasper asked, taking her face in his hands.

"The Death Eaters…. The Volturi…. Volde-voldemort."

"What?!"

Alice seemed to come back into herself. With a shudder, she opened her eyes and fell weakly into Jasper's waiting arms.

"Voldemort has joined forces with some of the Volturi. They're coming to take Hogwarts. And- and to kill us."

"When you say some…" Bella trailed off softly, looking at Edward.

"Jane. She-she's taken over with Caius. Aro and Marcus are dead."

It was a shock. There was no denying that.

"What can we do?" Harry whispered. "I mean, Voldemort's targeting me, right? I don't want anyone else dying for me."

The bleak words sent a shiver through the group as we all considered the certain destruction coming our way. Then I stood up from the rock, determined.

"We can fight."


	22. Chapter 21

**Chapter**** Twenty-One**

**A/N:Alrighty everyone, here we are again. I'm so sorry it's taken so long, but I've had things to do. First, I turned 17 on Sunday, so there was a sleepover and gifts and all that goes with it… Plus, I have an infection in my toe which makes it hurt to walk so I've been grouchy and in no mood to write. And I'm in mourning cos two of my favourite character's just died on Harper's Island… So I've had my reasons for not updating, even if they are lame!**

**Thanks as usual to everyone who has reviewed since my last update, as well as anyone who has given me ideas/opinions of any sort: BlAcKRuby'92, Lady Lily of Darkness, VeronicaD13, ChocolateGal16, Alyssa the Twilight Lover, Dare2dream00, Wolfwhisperer, amylily123, AnnabethChase5450, iiyNicolex3, HarryPotter'sCharmed, Chibi Angel of the Uchiha, Ally145, Emzer92, jewelthebrat, YunaNeko, To die upon a kiss, sweetdarkchild, FrequentlyDazzled93, Twin of Alice, BellaHermione, DAYLIGHT12, blackfeatherlass and bananabookworm. Keep the reviews coming, please!**

**By the way, I'm ignoring the Horcrux thing. It's too complicated for my simple mind. Let's just leave it as JK Rowling is a genius, but I cannot replicate her work. Please don't be angry!**

**So here we go with the third-from-last chapter of Blurring the Lines. I hope everyone likes it, and reviews! I don't mind constructive criticism, just don't get mad at me!**

**Love as always,**

**Ciara**

**x x x**

**/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/**

**Bella's POV:**

Things were sort of surreal. Once Alice and Edward managed to tell us exactly what was going on, things started to move extremely fast. Within minutes, all 15 of us were gathered in Professor Dumbledore's large, round office. Alice explained the whole thing in a dull, broken voice to Dumbledore, Carlisle, Esme and the other teachers who had been called to help. It frightened me that Alice sounded so helpless, so resigned. Jasper kept his hand on her shoulder the entire time, and he was so busy soothing her that he was unable to quell the crippling fear that was overcoming everyone else in the room.

"How long do we have, Alice?" Esme whispered softly, stroking Alice's spiky, dark locks and shooting Carlisle a worried glance.

"A couple of days. Three at the most."

"We must evacuate the students at once," said Professor McGonagall sharply. "They cannot be permitted to stay here, it is far too dangerous-"

"And what if we want to fight?" Harry asked in a fierce voice. His hand was clamped around Ginny's and she was nodding in agreement. Beside them, Ron, Hermione, Emma, Laura and Hazel murmured their alliance to the cause. "Professor, Voldemort is coming after me. I'm not running away."

"If students who are of age wish to stay behind to protect the school, they should be permitted to do so," squeaked tiny Professor Flitwick, who was perched on top of a pile of books so he could see Dumbledore over his desk. "It is their choice."

"Of course, Filius," Dumbledore agreed. "But the evacuation of the younger students is vital. We should attend to it immediately. Meanwhile, Minerva, could you alert the members of the Order of the Phoenix? We shall need their help."

"Yes, Albus, of course," nodded McGonagall, and she whisked out of sight down the spiral staircase in a whirl of tartan dressing gown.

"Sir, the old Dumbledore's Army coins will still work," Hermione piped up from where her head had been buried in Ron's shoulder. "Some of the members will surely want to help."

"And we need to contact the rest of my pack," added Jake. "They'll kill me themselves if they find out there was a battle they weren't invited to."

"We will organise Portkeys," Carlisle said. "Jacob can go to the Quileutes and bring them back here. I will ask the Denalis for their assistance."

"I'll go to Peter and Charlotte," offered Jasper.

"Surely the Amazons will want to fight," added Emmett.

And so it went. Soon, the office was almost empty. The rest of my family apart from Nessie and I had gone to round up the friends who would help us as they had once before. I felt guilty about asking them to lay down their lives for us, but as Edward had reassured me before taking a rusty silver-backed hairbrush to go in search of the Irish coven, they didn't have to fight if they didn't want to. It was a request, not an order. Professor Sprout went to find Neville, who would help her organise some defences from the plants in the greenhouses. Flitwick had gone to perform protective charms and Snape to alert Filch to the situation. McGonagall was tracking down the adult wizards known as the Order of the Phoenix, who would be coming to help. Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny had gone to find their DA coins to try to round up some of the members who had left Hogwarts since the coins had last been used. Dumbledore had sent Emma, Hazel and Laura to ask the Prefects to lead their Houses down to the Great Hall.

So now there was only Dumbledore, myself and my daughter left in the beautiful, round room. The old wizard surveyed us over the rims of his half-moon spectacles.

"You are not afraid," he noted. It wasn't a question. "The most feared wizard of all time is coming here, along with the most evil of your kind, who come with the aim of wiping out your entire family. And yet, neither of you are afraid."

"I'm not scared of dying," Nessie piped up, speaking for the first time since Alice had had her vision. "But I don't want innocent people to die because of some grudge the Volturi bear against my family. They have to be stopped. I want to help stop them." She was so calm, so matter-of-fact. The danger her own life was in didn't seem to occur to her.

"And you, Isabella?"

"The Volturi are evil. I don't care what anyone says about how they controlled the wars in the South, or how they keep humans from discovering our existence. I know them. They are evil." The image of Jane sprang forcefully to the forefront of my mind. "They will always want me dead. The only way to put an end to their tyranny is to wipe them out."

Dumbledore nodded his head of snow-white hair and smiled with his twinkling blue eyes. "You are both wise young ladies," he said softly, looking carefully at us. "Wise, brave and immensely _good_. These traits will stand you in good stead against the darkness of Lord Voldemort and the Volturi."

He rose to his feet and swept us before him. "Let us go to the Great Hall. There are students to be evacuated."

When we reached the Hall, it was full. Each House table was full of pale, worried faces. Dozens of individual, hushed conversations ceased immediately as Dumbledore walked in, with Nessie and I following slightly behind him. We went to take our seats at our House tables, but the headmaster shook his head and indicated we should stay with him at the top of the Great Hall.

"I see fear in the faces before me," Dumbledore began. His voice was as soft as a sigh, and yet it carried through the mass of bodies before him. "And though it pains me to say it, your fear is not unwarranted. Lord Voldemort is coming to Hogwarts."

His words were repeated as whispers spread like wildfire through the students. Several sobs broke out, followed by a couple of screams. Over at the Slytherin table, Pansy Parkinson fainted. Her friends were too busy staring at Dumbledore to help her to her feet again.

"Lord Voldemort is coming," continued Dumbledore. "He is coming, and we cannot prevent him from coming. Therefore, you will be evacuated from the premises immediately. Hogwarts is not safe for its students any longer. If the Slytherin Prefects could lead their House to the Entrance Hall, Mr Filch will oversee proceedings from there and-"

"What if we want to fight?" The tall, slender, dark-skinned form of Dean Thomas rose from the Gryffindor table, his hand still clasping Emma's. "This is our school, if we're of age then we should be allowed to protect it."

"And he's coming for Harry, right?" Seamus added, standing shoulder to shoulder with his best friend. "Well, he's our friend. We want to help."

"Yeah," chimed in Hazel, grinning over at her boyfriend. "We're fighting!"

There was a roar of appreciation from some of their fellow students as the huge oak doors burst open and Professor McGonagall strode in, quickly followed by a group of wizards and witches who must have been the Order of the Phoenix. Fred and George waved to several students as they passed, followed by a gaggle of other red-haired people who could only be the rest of the Weasley family. There was a breathtaking, slim blonde witch, a cheeky-looking young woman with bubblegum-pink hair and a tired looking man with mousy hair among the rest of the group as they took their places behind Dumbledore.

"Those of you who are of age may stay, if you wish. But remember, this is not a decision to be taken lightly. You risk your own lives if you remain here. Lord Voldemort and his supporters are vicious and immoral. They will stop at nothing in their destruction, and they are not alone. Ms Cullen, if you will."

I stared at Dumbledore uncomprehendingly for a moment, before I realised that all eyes in the Hall were on me. I looked despairingly at Nessie, who shot me an encouraging smile. "Tell them, Mom," she whispered, squeezing my wrist gently. Tentatively, I stepped forward.

"I'm Bella Cullen," I said, hoping my voice didn't sound as terrified as I felt. "As many of you have noticed, my family and I aren't like you. We are not human. We- we are vampires. But I promise you, we mean no harm," I added hastily over the hisses and gasps of horror. "We do not harm humans, unlike others of our kind. We value human life, and we would never harm an innocent. You don't have to be afraid of us."

"The problem is," Nessie joined in. "There are others like us who are not so civilised. They are called the Volturi, and they have joined forces with Voldemort. They shouldn't be taken for granted. Even with you magic, they will be hard to harm. They are fast, and some of them have powers of their own. Be warned, if you decide to fight, you fight them as well as the wizards."

"Thank you Renesmee, Isabella."

"It's Bella," I snapped, forgetting myself for a moment, just as Ness groaned, "Just Nessie, please."

"Yes, well now that you know the full situation, all underage students will be evacuated. Those of you who are of-age may remain if you so wish. Slytherins, please begin," instructed McGonagall and the trail of students began to leave the Hall.

Within minutes, the evacuation was complete. A handful of Ravenclaws remained behind, including Padma Patil, Terry Boot and-

"Miss Lovegood, you are _not_ of age," snapped McGonagall, taking Luna by the arm and attempting to remove her from the Hall.

"Professor, it's my birthday next week," Luna said, sounding remarkably calm. "And the Death Eaters have already kidnapped my father. I owe it to him to fight and I know perfectly well that Ginny will be allowed to stay, and if she does then so do I." The look on her face was so fiercely determined that even Professor McGonagall didn't dare argue with her.

Even more Hufflepuffs remained in their seats. Ernie Macmillan, Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones were among them. Each face was full of determination and many of them gripped their wands tightly in their hands as though anticipating the arrival of the Dark forces.

Half of Gryffindor, predictably, had stayed. This was heartening, but it did necessitate Professor McGonagall to leave the teacher's platform once more to separate the underage from those who were legitimate.

"Jimmy Peakes, remove yourself from this table before I write to your mother and tell her how you set my classroom on fire," she barked. "And you Creevey. Miss Vane, don't argue with me."

Then I looked around the Hall and, to my surprise, saw a lone figure still seated at the Slytherin table.

"Malfoy?" I gasped incredulously. My voice carried in the nearly empty hall and every head swivelled towards the thin white-blonde form. I wasn't the only one who found this hard to swallow. Nessie's eyes were narrowed to slits in dislike and Professor McGonagall was frowning so hard new furrows appeared in her brow.

"Albus, you can't believe this," she growled. "The boy is-"

"Severus, I think we shall be needing some Veritaserum," Dumbeldore called as Snape entered the Hall, followed by Harry, Ron, Ginny, Hermione and several people who looked to be in their early twenties.

"Angelina," George called to a black girl with cornrows, waving warmly. She sprinted between the tables towards him, followed by several other girls and a thick-set young man, throwing herself into his arms.

"What is Malfoy still doing here?" Harry growled furiously, glaring at his nemesis with a very ugly look on his face.

Before anyone could reply, a tall dark-skinned man with a gold hoop in one ear spoke up in a deep, calm voice. "We must begin preparations immediately. Dumbledore, is there somewhere smaller where we can talk?"

"Of course Kingsley," Dumbledore nodded.

And the group followed him upstairs to one of the classrooms where we began plotting and organising groups to patrol the castle and grounds.

/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/

The next day, plans were in full swing. Fred, George and their friend Lee Jordan were leading a small group of students to guard the secret passages around the school. The dark wizard with the soothing voice, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Remus Lupin were patrolling the grounds with more students and Order members. Professor McGonagall had organised the statues and suits of armour to defend the school from the forces which threatened it. Malfoy had been thoroughly interrogated with the use of Veritaserum and, amazingly, was genuine. He had been accepted into the fold, though Harry & Co still refused to speak directly to him. It was getting quite childish.

At around midday, the first coven arrived. It was the Irish- Siobhan, Liam and little Maggie.

"Bella," boomed Siobhan, crushing me to her huge, curvy bosom. "How have you been since we last spoke? But surely this isn't Nessie? She's a young woman now!"

"It's wonderful to see you too, Siobhan," I greeted her warmly. "But has Esme explained everything to you?"

"Of course she has. And we will fight with you. Those rotten Volturi need taking down a peg or two." And without another word she, Maggie and Liam immersed themselves in the plans.

Soon after, Jake arrived with the other Quileutes in tow.

"Hey Bella, Ness!" Seth crowed, running up to us and grabbing one of us with each well-muscled arm. "Thanks for inviting us."

"Only you could make a bloody, potentially fatal battle sound like a birthday party, Seth," Nessie beamed at him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck.

"Aw, shucks," grinned Seth goofily. "So this is Hogwarts, huh? Pretty cool, I gotta say. Even Leah's impressed, and we all know how hard she is to please."

Right on cue, Leah leaned over and smacked him across the head. He made a retaliatory face back and yanked on a strand of her dark, shiny hair, which had grown almost to her shoulders since the last time I saw her. It was shaping up to be a quite interesting duel when the door opened yet again and Jasper walked in, flanked on one side by Peter and Charlotte and on the other by Benjamin and Tia.

"No Amun or Kebi?" I asked, looking expectantly at the boyish face of Benjamin, who was pumping the hand of Liam as Maggie and Tia embraced.

"Nope," Benjamin answered cheerfully, smiling his usual bright smile. "Amun's afraid of dying, and Kebi, well, she does whatever Amun tells her, as you know. It got a bit heated when we decided to come but-"

"But Jasper intervened before anyone got any body parts bitten off," finished Tia, throwing me a glowing glance from beneath her long lashes. "Honestly, Amun's getting more and more like Alistair as the years pass."

The wizards watched these exchanges with a mixture of apprehension and confusion. I think they were expecting the traditional long-fanged, cape-wearing vampires of legend. Not a group of polite, dressed-down people who looked like pale, extraordinarily beautiful human beings.

"Oh, sorry, let me introduce everyone," I flustered. "Benjamin, Tia, Siobhan, Maggie, Liam, Seth, Leah, Sam, Paul, Jared, Quil, Embry, these are Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Kingsley, Remus, Fleur, Bill and Nymphadora-"

"Tonks," the aforementioned Nymphadora growled darkly. "Don't call me Nymphadora, it's just Tonks."

"Nymphadora Tonks, who prefers to be known only as Tonks," I amended, pointing out each person as I said their name. There were other groups all over the castle, getting ready. Alice had sent a message, hastily scrawled on a scrap of parchment, telling us that Voldemort, the Volturi and the Death Eaters would definitely arrive tomorrow. We would introduce the rest of them tonight at dinner, when the humans would need sustenance and the vampires would sit politely and try not to look hungry. That wouldn't help with the human's fear of being killed by us.

In a streak of pale skin and black hair, Alice flashed into the room and into Jasper's waiting arms, closely followed by Edward. Behind them strode the Amazons, long-limbed and wild-looking: Kachiri, Zafrina and Senna. Surprisingly, they were not alone. Two timid-looking faces appeared around the doorframe, and then Nahuel and Huilen walked tentatively into the room. Huilen held Nahuel's hand and looked rather uncertain about being here. Nahuel, on the other hand, was smiling directly at Nessie. I heard Jake cuss under his breath and crack his knuckles menacingly.

"Jasper," I called.

"I've got it," he replied, and I could feel the waves of serenity he was exuding as I hurried forward to greet our South American friends.

"How are you all?" I asked, hugging each muscular woman in turn and then embracing the smaller forms of Huilen and Nahuel.

"Never mind us, how are you, young Bella?" Zafrina asked as she picked Nessie up and twirled her around. She had always had a soft spot for my daughter. "And you, Nessie? My, aren't you beautiful?"

And so the chatter continued for a few more minutes as everyone was introduced to each other and the witches and wizards began to ask tentative questions. After a little while, Rosalie and Emmett arrived safely with the Denalis in tow. Garrett, of course, was with them, as he had been since our confrontation with the Volturi so long ago.

"Hang on," Nessie frowned as Carmen and Eleazer converged on her, staring perplexedly at Rose and Emmett. "I thought Carlisle was coming to get you guys. And where's Esme? She was with the Irish, wasn't she?"

"She came to find us," Maggie agreed, looking worried. "But she left us to make our own way here. She said Carlisle needed her, but she wouldn't tell us anything more. All I know is that she was telling the truth, I can't tell you any more. I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Nessie and I chorused.

"Tanya, have you heard from Carlisle?" I asked, addressing the breathtaking strawberry-blonde vampire who was deep in conversation with Alice. "Or you, Kate? Garrett?"

"Nothing," Kate replied as the other two shook their heads.

"I'm sure everything's fine," soothed Garrett, rubbing Kate's arm and shooting the rest of us a reassuring flash of his rugged, confident grin. Most of the people in the room looked relieved, but my subconscious was prickling. I looked up at Edward, who was running a hand absent-mindedly through my hair.

"Edward, do you know anything?" I asked him, looking him in the eye to ensure he couldn't shield me from the truth.

"No, love, I don't," he replied simply, pressing his lips to my forehead before glancing over at little Maggie, who was chatting to Ginny and Hermione. "Isn't that right Maggie?"

"He's not lying Bella, I of all people should know."

"Sorry," I sighed, squeezing Edward in a tight embrace. "It's just- not knowing where they are makes me edgy. I don't like it."

"Nor do I, love. Alice, can you see anything?"

Alice closed her eyes, a tiny line puckering her brow as she frowned in concentration. Jasper ran a comforting hand through the inky black spikes of her hair while rubbing his thumb in soothing circles in the hollow at the base of her neck. Her knuckles whitened a shade lighter than her porcelain skin as she tensed, then opened her eyes looking thoroughly disgruntled.

"Nothing," she moaned, rubbing her temples. "The damn wolves keep getting in the way and making things all fuzzy. I can't make out anything around them."

"I don't think you need to," called the werewolf, Lupin, from his position near the window. Every head swivelled to look in his direction. "They're coming. And they're not alone."

Edward and I rushed to his side, quickly followed by the others. I followed Remus's gaze and felt a growl build in my throat. Behind me, Emmett hissed. The wizards seemed mystified by our reactions.

"What eez going on?" asked Fleur, the sylph-like young witch with the sheet of silvery blonde hair.

"Don't ask me why," Rose replied, sounding stunned and disgusted all at once. "But the Volturi are with them."

/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/

"Carlisle!"

Edward's enraged snarl echoed through the Hogwarts grounds as we sprinted towards the newcomers. The contempt made his voice unrecognisable, the perfect velvet replaced by sandpaper.

"Carlisle, what the hell is going on?" he demanded, advancing on his father. Carlisle held his hands up, almost apologetically, as he faced us with Esme by his side.

"Edward, let me explain-"

"I think we'd all like that," Emmett interrupted, glaring at the dark-cloaked figures before us. As one, they allowed their hoods to fall back so that they were recognisable. Aro. Marcus. Alec. Chelsea. Felix. Demetri.

"I thought you told us those two were dead," Bill panted, pointing his wand at Aro and Marcus as the humans finally caught up.

"We thought so too," I murmured, staring incredulously from face to face. "I think we'd all like to hear that explanation, Carlisle."

"Allow me," said Aro smoothly, gliding forward. "Friends, at the risk of sounding clichéd, we come in peace." Emmett gave a disbelieving snort and Aro narrowed his gaze at him momentarily before continuing. "It is true. I believe the lovely Maggie can vouch for that."

"His words are true," Maggie nodded from where Siobhan and Liam stood protectively in front of her.

"Thank you, my sweet. As I say, we mean you no harm. In fact, quite the opposite. As the charming Alice has no doubt informed you. My _dear_ brother Caius has staged a takeover. We are no longer welcome in Volterra. Caius has formed an alliance with Lord Voldemort. Sulpicia is dead, as are a number of our friends."

"Afton!" Chelsea moaned, and I could see the pain in her eyes. The loss of her mate could not be feigned.

"Jane turned on us too," Alec piped up. He looked more childlike than ever, almost frightened. "She would have killed me had Felix not stepped in." The huge mountainous vampire grinned wolfishly.

"Interesting as your story is, Alice told us Aro and Marcus were dead. So, as they are both very much alive, you can see why we find it hard to trust you," Jasper said in a tight, cold voice. I noticed that he had taken a subtle step in front of Alice's tiny form, and realised that Emmett had also moved to shield Rosalie. Edward and Jacob covered Nessie and I.

"Of course, of course." Aro's tone was light, conversational almost. "There are several new recruits in the Volturi army since we have been ousted so unceremoniously. There is one among them, his name is Cole. He has a rather odd talent."

"Which is?" Kingsley pressed, sounding annoyed by Aro's theatrics. I couldn't say I blamed him.

"He can manipulate the visions of psychics. He planted the idea that we were dead in Alice's mind. Clever, really. If she saw the truth, you would have come looking for us. We had to track Carlisle down, not that that was too hard with Demetri in tow."

"And how do you know that this Cole planted the vision, if you were on the run at the time?" Nessie asked suspiciously. I spared her a proud smile.

"Afton was killed after we left. Chelsea was witness to their plans up until then, including Cole's work. I hope the beautiful Bella can protect Alice's mind, because if not we cannot believe anything she sees."

"You see, it is all in order," Carlisle said soothingly, smiling at us all. "They have come to _help._"

"Maggie?" Siobhan asked questioningly, turning to look at her youngest coven member.

"All true," the tiny redhead whispered, staring at the dark-clothed Volturi. Or, ex-Volturi. They were with us now. How strange.

"Now that the introductions and interrogations are complete," said Marcus, sounding just as bored as ever. "Could we begin preparing our resistance. The others will not be far behind us, they have a new tracker to replace Demetri. Selena, and I believe she has tipped them off to our intentions. They will be coming, and soon."

"We should get back inside, prepare the troops," Jake said, sounding like a real soldier instead of a young man preparing to partake in a supernatural battle of good versus evil.

"Too late," murmured Nessie, pointing into the sky. A dark streak of smoke flashed through the sky and then there was a noise like a crack of thunder. My keen eyes could see further than those of the humans. They saw the school boundary crumble to dust. They saw the bedraggled form stalking towards us, wand drawn. They recognised the face from the 'Wanted' page in the _Daily Prophet_ as that of Bellatrix Lestrange. And they saw that she was nowhere near alone. The first vampire I saw was Jane. She was smiling.

"Here goes nothing," I whispered, drawing my own wand. "Edward, Nessie, you are my life. I love you." I kissed Edward desperately, crushing my daughter to my chest.

Around us, mates were hugging and kissing with furious passion. Then, as one, the embraces were broken and wands were drawn as we sprinted back to the school to alert the others. To defend ourselves. To fight.

/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/

**A/N #2: Apologies for giving you yet another cliffie. Please review to let me know ****what you think!**


	23. Chapter 22

**Chapter Twenty-two**

**A/N:Hey again everybody! I hope you enjoyed the last chapter, and I apologise profusely for leaving it at a cliffie! I hope my quite swift update makes up for that a little bit!**

**Also, last chapter I forgot to acknowledge the lovely Alyssa the Twilight Lover. It was she who came up with Aro and Marcus being alive and the whole Cole thing… So if you liked that, you have her to thank! From me personally: thanks for the help Alyssa!**

**As usual, there are some lovely, wonderful, amazing reviewers out there. Thanks so much you guys, keep up the good work. Hopefully by the end of the story I'll have 400 reviews! From last chapter, credit to: Sapphire Serina Riddle (who is playing catch up at the moment), Dare2dream00, sweetdarkchild, DAYLIGHT12, Team Rosalie, Wolfwhisperer, AnnabethChase5450, xoxokat, Ally145, Alyssa the Twilight Lover, VeronicaD13, ChocolateGal16, .Her, SkaterKatie246, Chibi Angel of the Uchiha, HarryPotter'sCharmed, amylily123, blackfeatherlass, lizzie and SparklyVamp. Keep inspiring me people!**

**Ideas, comments and general randomness are acceptable- in fact, I rather love them. Hope everyone enjoys this penultimate chapter! And by the way, in my story, you can Stun a vampire!**

**Love as always,**

**Ciara**

**x x x**

**/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/**

**Nessie's POV:**

I wasn't expecting it to be as scary as it was. That might seem naïve, but I thought all I would be concerned with was fighting. I thought the thrill of the fight would take over and shut everything else out. I wasn't expecting the icy pain flooding through me every time I heard a scream or a sob. I was afraid, but not for me. My whole family was here, fighting. My whole family was risking their lives.

My whole family could die.

"Jake, on your left!" I screamed, dodging a jet of green light from the wand of a cloaked Death Eater. Jacob whirled around, transforming in mid-air so that there was a gigantic russet wolf where the love of my life had been standing. He leapt at the advancing form of Santiago, one of the Volturi, and a sickening metallic screech filled the air. One of the classrooms nearby was aflame, the desks inside smouldering in the flickering flames, and Jake took advantage of this, tossing the remains of Santiago into the waiting embers.

Up ahead, I could make out the identical forms of Fred and George Weasley. Fred was battling the Death Eater named Dolohov, while his twin parried the attacks of Corin. The vampire's face was full of malevolence; she was enjoying the murder going on around her. She grinned and ducked beneath George's cover, going in for the kill, white teeth glinting sinisterly.

"No!" I shrieked, sprinting at them, wand outstretched. "_Stupefy!_ _Stupefy_!"

Corin crumpled to the floor and the large chocolate-brown wolf that was Quil bounded around the corner. I looked away as I heard his teeth rip into the marble skin, tearing a second Volturi member apart. If I hadn't seen how mush their numbers had increased by since Caius had taken over, I would have thought we had an advantage now.

"Cheers, Nessie!" George called as he aimed a neat jinx out the window, sending it sailing into a crowd of fighters out in the grounds. "I owe you one!"

"I'll bear that in mind next time I'm almost being murdered!" I replied briefly. Then I saw a body topple past the window outside and rushed to see who it was. My sharp eyes saw what the others could not; Lavender Brown lay sprawled on the grass outside, stirring feebly. Her legs were bent at a strange angle, and even from here I could smell the blood. As I watched, Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse, swooped down on her, flanked by Professors Flitwick and McGonagall who guarded her as she worked.

"Nessie, heads up!"

I whirled around, coming face to face with the madly-grinning Alecto Carrow. Her wand was trained on my heart and she was laughing wheezily.

"My, you're a pretty one," she crooned. "I'm afraid you won't be pretty for much longer though, my dear."

She shot a curse at me, but I managed to parry it somehow, deflecting it into the grounds. I heard a scream, but whether it was from our side or theirs I couldn't tell.

"Oh, you know how to play, do you?" sniggered Alecto as I dodged another curse.

"Yeah, I do," I grunted, attempting to break under her cover, while simultaneously picking up my feet to avoid the spell which cracked the flagstones beneath my feet.

"You can't dance forever, my darling," my opponent laughed, taunting me.

"I only need to dance longer than you," I reminded her. Her mouth opened in a lopsided laugh, and then she froze, before toppling backwards. I stared around, confused, looking for my saviour as Alecto's body toppled down the spiral staircase.

"Now we're even," grinned George, before dashing off in pursuit of the Death Eater, Rookwood, who was chasing down Ginny.

There was a brief reprieve in which our corridor was still and empty. I leaned against the sill, breathing heavily. Then a heart-stopping shriek echoed through the school, more high-pitched than a human scream, more beautiful and yet more terrifying. Before I had time to stop and think, I was running in the direction of the scream, wand held in front of me, willing myself not to lose control. I tripped down the spiral staircase with such speed that I felt light-headed, almost dizzy, though I couldn't be quite sure if that was from the circling motion or the fear of losing someone I loved.

The next floor down was utter chaos. Death Eaters and students alike were running away as a large, rangy creature advanced on them. This was a true werewolf, grotesque and monstrous as it snarled viciously. I tried to Stun it, but the spell missed and ricocheted off a suit of armour. I saw the glint in the eye of the monster, which was of course the infamous Fenrir Greyback, as it made a leap for the prone form of Hazel, sprawled in the debris from an explosion. I raised my wand again, but before I could take aim there was a blur of fur and Greyback was bowled over by the combined efforts of Lupin and Leah. Seamus pulled Hazel out of the way, pointing his wand at her chest and muttering "_Renervate_," wildly as he tugged her through a tapestry, which was hiding a secret passageway, and out of harm's way.

I felt a spell strike me, but it was evidently meant to cause a cut because it didn't affect my strong skin. I shot another curse over my shoulder at my assailant, not waiting to see if it made contact or not, because I could see the pale form lying at the end of the corridor, blonde hair spilling everywhere.

Rosalie.

"Emmett!" I shrieked, my breath catching in my chest. "EMMETT!"

I tripped dazedly to my aunt's side, brushing her beautiful golden locks out of her eyes, which were half-open. Her golden eyes found mine and she winced painfully.

"Emmett…" Her voice was so faint, so weak. I felt a jolt of pain again.

"He's coming Rose," I whispered wildly, not sure if he really was or not. "He's coming."

"My arm…"

I looked down at her arm and I felt my stomach swoop sickeningly, like the feeling you get when you miss a step on the stairs. A large chunk of Rosalie's right forearm and her hand were missing, and I could see the crescent-shaped scars already forming where the teeth had ripped them away.

"Who?" I whispered, stroking her hair. "Who did this, Rose?"

"The new tracker, Selena," she groaned back, biting so hard on her lip I was worried she would puncture it. "She did it, and then she went after Bella…"

A terrified scream burst from my lips, slipping through my clenched teeth. If Selena could do this to Rose, who was so strong, what would she do to my mom?

Before I could get my head together and think of what to do, I heard heavy footfalls. Emmett. I heard the agonised yell pull itself from him as he saw Rose lying there, saw him fall to his knees with such force that the floor beneath us shook. I saw the pain in his face as he cupped hers in his huge hands.

"We have to find that hand," he said fiercely, glaring at me. "Nessie, we have to find it!"

I stood up shakily, scanning the wreckage of the corridor. Bodies lay scattered every couple of metres, tossed aside like rag dolls in the fighting. Ernie Macmillan was the closest to us, completely unscathed and yet unnaturally pale for a human, his eyes closed and mouth half-open. Further away, I could make out a vivid pink tuft of hair and knew that Tonks was gone too. And then-

"There!" I yelled, scrambling over bodies and debris, stumbling on the head of a statue, as I dived for it. The cold, stone-like hand could have been that of one of the many sculptures Hogwarts boasted. I grasped it with trembling fingers, cringing as it twitched and writhed in my palm. "Here, Emmett take it!"

And as he placed it next to her, Rosalie's hand re-attached itself before our eyes. She lay very still for one long moment, and Emmett and I exchanged frightened glances.

"Maybe it's been detached too long-"

"Shut up, Emmett. I'm fine," Rose groaned, struggling upright. She flexed her fingers experimentally and brushed her lips to her mate's grime-covered forehead. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a bitch's body to dismember."

With that, she was gone. It was so typically Rose, totally at odds with the situation. A startled, slightly hysterical laugh bubbled inside me and exploded into the death and destruction. It sounded so wrong in the dark corridor full of dead bodies, and yet I couldn't help it. I laughed and laughed, and Emmett laughed too in his deep bass voice. I laughed until my stomach and cheeks hurt.

Then the spell was broken and Bellatrix Lestrange danced into view. She capered and cackled insanely as she duelled three at once; Alice, Hermione and Mom.

"Mom!" I called, running to help.

"Nessie, stay back!" she grunted back, her voice blunt with exertion. Both she and Alice had speed, and Hermione was an uncommonly good witch, but Bellatrix was equal to them all. Her wand twirled and spun like a conductor's baton as the green and red lights flashed like fireworks in the narrow hallway, her face alight with pure evil.

"Yes, Renesmee, stay back," she jeered, aiming at Alice, who ducked. The spell hit the advancing figure of Macnair instead, and he fell to the ground, dead. Bellatrix howled with frustration and sped up, her eyes glinting madly. "I'll do you next."

"No!" Mom shrieked, looking more beautiful and yet more terrible than I had ever seen her, her pale skin almost luminescent, her dark hair flying around her in tendrils. "You will _not_ harm my daughter!"

The force of her fury exploded like a small bomb, and her spell broke Bellatrix's defences. Lord Voldemort's lieutenant went flying backwards, hitting the stone wall with a sickening crack and slumping to the ground. She didn't move.

"Remind me never to get on your bad side," Emmett muttered darkly, staring at Mom in amazement.

"Never mind that now," interrupted Hermione, leaning against the wall for support. "We should move the bodies, they shouldn't be left here. They died fighting the Dark forces. They are heroes."

"Of course," I agreed, looking at the fallen forms of Ernie, Tonks and countless other unrecognisable faces. "But where?"

It was Alice who answered. "The Great Hall. There's enough room there to lay them out with respect. I can see, we'll put them there."

"Are you sure it's not a trap?" Mom asked her nervously, putting a hand on Alice's arm. "Maybe Cole-"

"Bella, you need to be more confident in yourself. Your shield works, you know it does."

"But-"

"Besides, Cole was too busy fighting Edward and Jasper to bother with me," Alice continued. "Emmett, could you-"

"Of course." Emmett picked up Ernie's corpse as easily as if he was a soft toy and hurried to pick up another in his other arm. As he and Mom carried the bodies of those who had died fighting with us, Alice, Hermione and I walked in front of them, wands outstretched, protecting them.

"Hermione, you're bleeding," I pointed out, indicating a deep cut above her eyebrow. Hermione brushed her fingers to it and shrugged.

"It could be worse."

"Maybe, but it'll make you a prime target for vampires," Alice interjected, sealing the wound with her wand.

"Thanks."

There was an eerie silence in the school as we traipsed through the deserted corridors. It seemed everyone had had the same idea as us, and the Dark forces had gone to regroup. It was only when we were on the third floor that we met life.

It was two on two; the tiny, childlike form of Alec was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Amy, one of the Chaser's from the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. Her silky black hair had come out of its ponytail and was hanging around her ash-coated face. She was glaring contemptuously at their opponents, a masked Death Eater and another vampire.

Though I had never seen her before, I knew who she was. She had the same lean build and hungry eyes as Demetri, though they were not related. Blood-red eyes burned in her chalk-white face and dark auburn curls spilled around her, spiralling down to her waist. Rose's favourite silver hair comb was jammed in the curls.

"Selena," I whispered. Mom nodded and a hiss of fury slipped between Alice's teeth.

"Selena, think for a moment," Alec pleaded with the wild one. "The Volturi aim to protect the vampire community, to control it. You have already killed one vampire. Let Maggie be the only one you take. Control is key, Selena. But this-" He paused and waved a hand at the destruction surrounding us. "- This is not control. This is chaos. Chaos makes us crumble. Selena, just stop the chaos. Please."

"The Dark Lord says once he takes over, there will be no need to control the vampires," Selena muttered in a low, silky voice. "He says we will have free reign, and all the human blood we desire. I won't give that up, Alec, and neither should you."

"I'm sorry you feel that way," the boyish vampire replied stiffly. "Now you leave me no choice. This is the only mercy I can show you." He smiled blandly at her, and as far as I could see, nothing happened. But then the masked wizard cowered in fear, and Selena howled.

"Alec, I know what you are doing! Alec, stop it. Please. I'll give in, I swear."

I saw the conflict in Alec's features, saw him flinch at the fear in the voice of a vampire who might have been his companion, his friend even, if things had been different. Reluctantly, it seemed, he removed the deprivation of their senses.

"Thank you," gasped Selena, smiling a coy smile at him. "But I can't believe you just did that."

She sprang at him, teeth bared. I was full sure Alec would be ripped apart by those teeth, but Selena crumpled to the ground in the blink of an eye, closely followed by the Death Eater in the mask. Amy stood over them, wand outstretched. She was shaking, and looked close to tears.

"I've never Stunned anyone before," she said in a tiny voice. "I didn't expect to feel so guilty."

Alec stared openly at her. "How did you know she would turn?"

"You're used to living with vampires, you let your guard down. I, on the other hand, don't trust them. Something to do with the fact that they're all baying for my blood."

"Do you trust me?" Alec asked, his eyes glinting.

"Nope. No offence, but those red eyes are really creepy."

"Hate to break up the cosy little conversation over here, but Amy, you're limping," Hermione said briskly. "Do you think you trust Alec enough to bring you down to the Great Hall to Madam Pomfrey? I'd fix you up myself, but I'm shaking so much I'd probably do more harm than good."

And small, pint-sized Alec scooped Amy up in his arms and carried her down the stairs. There was a commotion from a nearby classroom, and we all hurried forward to see what we could do to help. I lagged behind the others, leaning over Selena's prone form, and wrenched the comb from her head with as much force as I could muster. As I ran to catch up with the others, I prayed to God Dad and Jake weren't involved as I peered fearfully around the doorframe.

Ron and Ginny had their wands trained on the cringing forms of Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy, both of whom were wandless and snivelling.

"Don't you dare touch me, blood traitor," Lucius hissed, but his voice was shaking so much that the contemptuous effect was ruined.

"You're in no position to be making threats, Malfoy," growled Ron furiously. As we watched, he pressed the tip of his wand to Malfoy's pale, pointed chin and the older man flinched.

"You wouldn't, would you?" Narcissa asked Ginny. "You're just a girl. Think about what will happen if you kill me. Azkaban is not a place for a child like you, and there will be retaliation. The Dark Lord will kill every member of your family. He may even make you watch-"

"Shut up!" Ginny snapped shakily, her eyes flitting from Ron to the Malfoys and back again. "Just shut up."

"Your sister is no killer, Weasley, and she is braver by far than you," jeered Lucius. "If she cannot do it, you surely can't." There was a flurry of movement to my left and another pale, blonde figure appeared, wand outstretched. "Ah, Draco, how nice to see you. Come and relieve these blood traitors of their pitiful lives."

Draco Malfoy stalked past me into the room, his face contorted and muttering to himself. His robes were ripped and his wand arm was shaking badly. He stopped, facing the quartet, and did nothing.

"Come, Draco! Don't just stand there you useless boy, do something!"

Draco didn't move.

"Hurry, Draco," Narcissa joined in, her voice sharp instead of pleading. "What are you waiting for?"

"Draco, prove yourself. Kill these blood traitors, and the Dark Lord will reward our family. We will be back in his good graces, and you will be honoured above all others as-"

"Don't you get it?" Draco blurted, attempting to steady his trembling hand. "I don't _want_ to be rewarded. I never did. I've never wanted to be the Dark Lord's most prized servant. That was your dream Father, not mine."

"But Draco, you've been initiated. You have the Dark Mark-"

"A Mark I didn't want! You forced me into it, Father. I never asked for any of this- not the Dark Mark, not the murder, none of it! It was you who wanted to redeem the Malfoy name- Redeem it! Ha! If murdering good people for Voldemort is redemption, then I don't want to be redeemed. It's over, Father. Your time is up."

"Draco, you will be killed-"

"The Order of the Phoenix will hide me. Dumbledore said so, he said they will protect me if I do the right thing. I'm sorry Father. I did love you once, and Mother too. But I was young and foolish, and I didn't understand what you were involved in. Now I know. And I want no p-part in it. I'm s-sorry."

Tears were slipping down Draco's face as he turned his wand on his father. "I'm just going to Stun them, alright?" he asked Ron and Ginny shakily. "They can rot in Azkaban for their crimes, but I won't kill them. If I murder them, I will be like them."

The others nodded wordlessly and he turned his wand on his mother. "I'm sorry it ended like this," he whispered. _"Stupefy!_" The light filled the corridor as his mother crumpled to the ground, closely followed by his father. Draco stood before their prone forms, looking shocked and frightened, like a child instead of a young man. He shook violently, and the flow of tears intensified. We hurried forward and Hermione ran into Ron's waiting arms, burying her face in his hair as he kissed her exposed neck. Ginny slinked forward and tentatively patted Draco's shoulder. He didn't even flinch at her touch.

"We should get him to Madam Pomfrey," I whispered softly. "He's in shock."

Mom, Alice and Emmett murmured in agreement and the group surged down the next set of steps, now with Draco Malfoy in tow. I couldn't believe it, but I felt sorry for him. It must have been very hard for him to do that, to choose between his parents and the right thing.

We reached the Great Hall without further interruption. The bodies were laid out in neat rows, some surrounded by grieving family members and friends. As a crowd of people moved to one side, I saw Emmett lay the body of Tonks beside that of her husband, Lupin. A couple of bodies away lay Harry's old girlfriend, Cho Chang. Further up, George Weasley was attempting to pull a sobbing Fred off the peaceful form of Alicia Spinet, while Angelina Johnson watched on, tears slipping down her dark cheeks at the loss of her friend.

On the platform at the top of the room, Madam Pomfrey was tending to the injured. Luna Lovegood was among them, as were Laura and Emma. Hazel had her head on Seamus's shoulder. She was pale, and her curls were thoroughly dishevelled, but otherwise she looked to be alright. Firenze the centaur lay in the corner, blood pouring from his flanks, and Grawp, Hagrid's half-brother, was peering in through the broken windows.

The room was destroyed. The hourglasses that held the jewels for House points were shattered beyond repair, and the teacher's table was splintered and charred. House-elves were scurrying through the crowds of people, offering water and washcloths that nobody seemed concerned with accepting. I scanned the room desperately, searching for the faces I craved the most.

Alice sped past me, hurtling into Jasper's arms and hugging him hard. Jasper kissed every part of her he could, as though to convince himself that it was really her, alive. He was tense and his muscles were clenched. I guessed it was because of all the blood in the room. Emmett was cradling Rosalie in his arms, holding her more gently than I would have thought he was capable of doing. The tender expression on his face as he encouraged her to talk to him made my stomach clench uncomfortably.

"Edward!" Mom screamed, sprinting past a gaggle of Weasleys. I breathed a sigh of relief and followed her. Dad stood there, very much alive, looking as perfect and sweet as ever. His bronze hair stuck up in every direction, and there was a haunted look in his eyes. He took us in his arms, cradling us and kissing our foreheads. "Oh Edward, I was so scared."

"Me too, love. You're the last ones back, I thought…" he broke off, shuddering. "I'm just glad you're both safe."

"Dad, what's wrong?" I asked, assessing his features, which he was carefully trying to arrange into an unconvincing smile.

"Nothing." Too quick. Something was wrong.

"_Dad_."

"Siobhan and Liam are gone. They couldn't take losing Maggie. Damn Selena."

"Alec and Amy dealt with her," Mom interjected. "Alec's going back to burn her now."

"That's something at least." He sounded relieved, and yet he still wouldn't meet my gaze. I felt my pulse quicken.

"Dad," I said slowly, looking around. "Where's Jake?" No doubt about it, he _definitely_ wasn't meeting my gaze. "_Dad_!"

"The wolves are patrolling the grounds. They're trying to find Voldemort alone. I tried to stop them"

"No! They can't, there aren't enough of them. They-they'll die!" I felt extremely faint. The world was blurring and slipping sideways. "Jacob…"

Dad tensed suddenly, pushing me away from him. His expression was unreadable as he hurried past us, to where Dumbledore and Harry were talking urgently. I strained my ears and caught a snatch of their conversation.

"Harry, I cannot let you sacrifice yourself-"

"Enough people have died, Dumbledore. It's all for me, I can't stand it. I should just offer myself up to Voldemort. He might spare the rest of you."

"It's too late to think about that, I'm afraid," Dad interrupted, laying a hand on Harry's shoulder. "They're coming right now, I can hear their thoughts. They'll be here in moments."

I don't know exactly how, but everyone seemed to hear this, and the reaction was immediate. The injured struggled to their feet, wincing as they drew their wands with determination. Madam Pomfrey fluttered through them, detaining the ones who could not fight. The survivors ripped themselves away from their loved ones, living and lost, and readied themselves. Even the house-elves seemed ready to fight, producing knives and meat cleavers from their apron-like towels.

"They can't get in here," Angelina Johnson cried thickly, standing in front of Alicia's body as though to shield her friend from further harm. "These souls deserve to rest in peace!"

There was a chorus of approval for her words and, as one, the Hogwartians, their friends and family and all the remaining vampires surged through the double doors into the Entrance Hall. An unearthly silence fell as we waited. I clutched my wand in one hand and gripped Mom's hand with the other. For several long moments, nothing happened, and I could kid myself that everything was alright.

And then the front doors were blasted off their hinges.

The masked Death Eaters entered first, wands trained on our resilient group of fighters. The remaining Order members pushed their way into aiming positions, preparing to shoot their own spells at their enemies. Then came dozens of dark-cloaked Volturi members, pale as ghosts and quick as lightning. I gasped unwillingly. Mom had told me about the Volturi before, but it seemed their numbers had swelled immensely in the years since they had last been to visit us in Forks.

And then came the final three, two slightly ahead of the other, in a V-shaped formation.

Caius and Jane were smiling identically, their cold red eyes alight with murder. On my left, I heard Aro and Marcus snarl in unison. As Alec rejoined us from burning the remains of Selena, Jane gave a petulant little wave to her twin brother, wiggling her fingers tauntingly. I could taste the venom in my mouth.

And behind them, striding majestically as a king surveying his subjects, was Lord Voldemort. It could only have been him, because no other creature could exude such pure evil. He too was cloaked in black gossamer, his nostrils flaring as he glared at the assembled group. With his red eyes and deathly pale skin, he could almost have been another vampire.

His followers fell back as he stalked forward, coming to a halt just ahead of Jane and Caius.

"Give me Harry Potter," he said in a high, clear voice. "Harry Potter is the only one I want. Give him to me, and your blood will not be spilt. You are brave, each one of you. I value bravery. But you have sustained heavy losses, have you not? Give me Potter, and I will not harm any of you. I will leave you to mourn your dead in peace. Give him to me."

Harry stepped forward from his place in the crowd. "Here I am."

"No!" Ginny shrieked, pulling away from the enclosing arms of her mother. "No, Harry, don't!"

"Ginny, this is my fight. Mine, and mine alone."

"No, it's not." Hermione spoke now. "It's the fight of anyone who wants what is right, Harry. And I want what's right. So it's my fight too."

"And mine," Ron piped up.

"And mine."

"Mine too."

"Me as well."

"And me!"

The voices rang out defiantly, challenging Harry. I added mine to the cacophony, as did Mom, Dad, Alice, Jasper, Emmett, Rose and everyone else on our side. Emmett and Bill Weasley pulled Harry back into the fold and out of sight, despite his protests.

"The decision has been made for you, it would seem, Harry," Voldemort said coldly, drawing his wand like a sword. "I tried to reason with you all."

He sent the first jet of green light into the crowd of fighters with a maniacal scream of laughter, and then the battle erupted once more. Black-cloaked figures slithered between the fighters, picking sparring partners as though it was sport, not a life-or-death battle. I exchanged a brief, blazing look with Mom and Dad, then made a break for Caius. A hand blocked my path.

"No," growled Aro. "Marcus and I would like to deal with our _dear_ brother if you don't mind, Renesmee."

I nodded sharply and danced towards an unknown Death Eater, who was harassing a limping Luna. I Disarmed him quickly and aimed a swift kick at his nose, grinning to myself with satisfaction as I heard the tell-tale crunch that informed me it was broken. Luna beamed up at me, silvery eyes full of gratitude.

"Thank you!"

"Don't mention it, we have other matters to worry about. Such as the Death Eater coming towards us," I replied quickly, whirling my wand in the direction of the aforementioned wizard before dashing off into the midst of the fighting again.

It was bad. We were losing. Everywhere I looked, bodies were strewn like toys of a giant toddler. Even with Benjamin creating deep cracks in the ground and exploding enemies and Mom shielding us all from Jane, we were falling like flies. The Dark side had a new vampire, one who could negate Alec's power, so we had very little advantage if any. Their numbers were too overwhelming.

"Jake!" I called as the russet wolf bounded in the door, closely followed by the wolves I recognised as Seth, Leah and Sam. I dodged a spell aimed at my head and skirted around Neville Longbottom, striking the unknown vampire who was attempting to bite him from behind. I brushed my fingers to the thick russet fur momentarily before rejoining the battle.

The lights were blinding, the screams and sobs heart-wrenching. On and on it went, the forces of good refusing to give up even when we knew in our hearts we were fighting a losing battle.

And then, suddenly, the fighting stopped. I turned and saw what everyone else had already seen; Harry had battled his way through the crowd and was facing Voldemort, wand raised. Death Eaters, vampires and Hogwartians alike surrounded them, forming a loose, ragged circle. Voldemort smiled cruelly as he surveyed Harry, a predator stalking his prey.

"You fought well, Harry. Or should I say, your friends fought well for you. Once again, you have used your friends as obstacles, placing as much distance as possible between yourself and the inevitable."

"I never asked them to do that," Harry said in a strangled voice, his gaze straying to Ginny, Ron and Hermione.

"But they have, haven't they? Still, that is unimportant now. It is just us, as it always should have been."

"Yeah, really quaint," Harry snarled. "My friends have died to bring you down, Riddle. I won't let them die in vain."

"Words, just words as usual, Harry. My followers have died too, so while I find your concern touching, it matters little. Both sides have sustained losses. Now yours will sustain the ultimate one. _'Neither can live while the other survives'_. Life is mine, Harry Potter. The Boy Who Lived No Longer. I'd like to say it's been a pleasure, but I dislike liars. Goodbye Harry."

Both wizards raised their wands. Both mouthed the words of incantations. Two jets of light, one red, one green. A flash of golden light. One body sprawled to the ground.

There was a moments stunned silence. Then Harry pocketed his wand.

"Goodbye Tom Riddle."

The Entrance Hall exploded with shrieks and cheers. Sparks were fired into the air as He Who Must Not Be Named fell with a thud on the flagstones. I hugged the giant russet wolf and Mom and Dad ran to us, Dad scooping me up in his arms and Mom kissing my hair.

"Voldemort is dead, the Volturi are finished. My baby is safe at last!" Mom sang. "Our baby is safe, Edward."

Everything was perfect. The Dark forces were finished. The remaining Death Eaters and Volturi members were being rounded up. Even the sickening metallic scent of blood and death couldn't put a dampener on things. Jasper was controlling himself even though it was harder than it had ever been for him, my family were alive, Jake was beside me and good had prevailed over evil. It was all good, perfectly, wonderfully, blissfully good.

And then there was a streak of pale skin tearing across the Entrance Hall. And bodies were colliding, and people were screaming and sobbing all over again, and my heart was ripped out of my chest as I heard the shrieking scream of Leah Clearwater as she transformed back into a girl, tears streaming down the face of the young woman who had always seemed so fierce, so strong. And Jake and Sam were howling in pain, and all of my family were running. And Leah was scratching desperately, hysterically, furiously at every inch of Jasper she could reach.

Jasper, who was kneeling on the floor beside Seth who was in his human form somehow. Jasper, who had his mouth pressed to Seth's neck as he drank his blood.

/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/

**A/N #2: Apologies for having yet another cliffie. Freaked out? Confused? Feeling anything at all? REVIEW and tell me!**


	24. Chapter 23

**Chapter Twenty-three**

**A/N:OK everyone, I'm back with the last instalment of Blurring the Lines! I'm so sorry I left you with that horrible cliffie last time, it was mean of me… But I promise, all will be revealed this chapter! Just hold tight…**

**As usual, thanks so much to every single person who took the time to review: Dare2dream00, VeronicaD13, xoxokat, Alyssa the Twilight Lover, .Her, CleverBlast, Areej, amylily123, SkaterKatie246, FireKumori mage, Team Rosalie, Wolfwhisperer, HarryPotter'sCharmed, Jazzy273, ChocolateGal16, Chibi Angel of the Uchiha, Painelust, DAYLIGHT12, Twin of Alice, sweetdarkchild, Rosaline Riddle, VictoriaAngel, AnnabethChase5450, Brown-eyed Innocence, wallytops and RileyPoole'sLittleWhiskeyGirl. I've been amazed by your constant support throughout the writing of this story, and I hope you'll continue it for this very last chapter!**

**Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading Blurring the Lines right up to the end. It makes me feel happy! ******** So here it is, the very last chapter. I hope you enjoy reading it, because I've really enjoyed writing this story and hearing what you all think of it!**

**Love as always,**

**Ciara**

**x x x**

**/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/**

**Jake's POV:**

Weird. Weird and confusing. That's the only way to describe what had gone on today. I don't think I've ever been as freaked out as I was sitting in that squeaky hospital wing chair, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

First off, there was the whole 'Jasper mauling Seth' thing. I'll admit it- when I saw that hungry-looking blonde vampire jumping on the kid, I got mad. More than mad. It freaking _hurt_. I'd always told Seth (on a pretty frequent basis, in fact) that he annoyed the hell out of me. It was true, some of the time. A lot of the time, in fact. But at the risk of sounding corny, Seth was like a little brother to me. I loved him, I a 'bromance' kinda way. So, you know, seeing my sort-of-brother lying on the ground with a vampire's mouth pressed to his neck? Not fun. Not fun at all.

I wanted to devour Jasper. I wanted to rip him to pieces. I hated him. I hated him almost as much as Blondie hates chain store clothes. But before I had a chance to murder him in cold blood (no pun intended), Edward was standing in front of me, hands up, blocking my way. Stupid dumb bloodsucker.

_If you don't move_, I thought, being in my wolf form and unable to yell at him like I wanted to. _I swear I'll rip that perfect bronze hair off your head._

"Jacob, I realise that you're upset, but scalping me will not help anyone, least of all Seth."

_Fine, I'll just jump over you and kill Jasper. You can't tell me _that_ won't help Seth. The leech is literally sucking the life outta him!_

"Take a closer look, genius," snapped Edward. Surprised, I followed his gaze.

_Jasper's sucking the life outta my wing man. What more is there to see? Get the hell outta my way and let me kill your brother. It'll just take a minute._

"Jacob, I thought you were smart!" Edward growled, still being an idiot and refusing to move. "_Look!_" This time, he pointed with his pale pianist finger.

_Oh._

"Yes, Jacob, oh indeed."

Because, being ever so slightly preoccupied with the fact that my surrogate little bro was dying in front of my eyes, I had failed to notice a couple of tiny little details. Like the fact that Jasper was shuddering and retching at intervals. Like that Alice was cheering him on like some sort of weirdo cheerleader. Like that Carlisle and Esme were pinning Jane to the wall while Bella concentrated on not letting the tiny little bitch do the whole 'crippling pain' thing and Emmett and Blondie prepared to rip her apart.

_Oh._

So it was Jane who bit Seth, knowing of course that her petty little plan would kill him. Cos, you know, vampire venom doesn't work on us like it does on normal humans. It doesn't make us go all cold and hard and anaemic-looking. It freaking _kills_ us.

So since it turned out that Jane was the one who attacked him, and Jasper was shaking and dry-heaving, it seemed my decision to murder him was a mistake.

"Mistake is an understatement, Jacob," Edward hissed, glaring at me. "That 'leech' is trying to _save_ Seth. He's trying to suck the venom out, not drink Seth's blood."

_Funnily enough, __I got that_, I thought sarcastically. _Nessie thought he was killing him too_.

"Tattling is childish, Jacob," drawled Edward in a bored voice, wrapping an arm around Nessie and shielding her eyes as Emmett made the first rip and a tearful Hermione sent a stream of fire issuing from the tip of her wand. I didn't look away. I watched as they ripped Jane apart, feeling a vindictive pleasure. Sure, I was one sick puppy (pun intended), but come on, I had a valid reason. The little witch deserved it. I'd found someone I hated more than Blondie. In fact, Jane made Rosalie look like a sweet little six-year-old playing with Barbie dolls and dressed in various shades of pink.

I watched until there was no Jane left to be burned. I watched until the fire was burning out, even though the foul-smelling smoke hurt my wolf nose like hell. Honestly, I thought normal leech stench was bad. But burning leech was way, way worse. Almost on a par with Paul when he hadn't bothered showering for a couple of days.

Grudgingly, I wandered over and pushed my nose into Nessie's hand. She reached out and stroked my rusty fur sadly, eyes still on Jasper and Seth.

"It'll be alright, Jake," she said softly, patting my head consolingly. "It'll be alright…"

I know she was trying to help, but I could hear the trembling in her voice. She didn't really have a clue what would happen. She didn't know if it would be alright, any more than I did.

_Edward?_

He looked me right in the eye and shrugged. "I don't know what's going to happen, Jacob. Jasper will do all he can but…"

I cringed as best a gigantic russet wolf can and watched as Jasper tried hard to save Seth. I was putting my faith in a frickin' vampire.

No wonder I was worried.

/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/

So there we all were, sitting in the hospital wing, huddled around Seth's bed. OK, so not everyone was there for Seth. Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Neville were sitting beside Luna's bed, chatting to her about Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. Two beds down, Laura was arranging a bunch of flowers in a vase beside Hazel's bed. Seamus sat in the seat nearest to her, looking all love-struck as they chatted. Dean and Emma sat on the other side of the bed, hand-in-hand. I guess almost dying really makes you want to live life. Both Luna and Hazel were very much awake, talking spiritedly and asking lots of questions. There were a couple of tears when they found out who had died, but nothing like what was going on at our end of the ward.

Leah was hysterical, actually hysterical. She couldn't stop crying, and they were proper tears, too. She didn't cry prettily, like a cheerleader pretending to care when her school team lost the championship game, but went the whole hog with snot and wailing and everything. Ordinarily, it would have been a golden opportunity for some grade-A teasing, but today I didn't have the heart for it. In fact, I almost felt like pulling up a seat and crying with her. Not that I told her that; Leah probably wouldn't use it against me later, but you could bet Blondie would. Instead, I sat with my head on Nessie's shoulder and attempted to keep spirits up by cracking the worst blonde jokes I could think of.

"Hey Rosalie, what happened to the blonde ice hockey team?"

Silence.

"They drowned during spring training!"

OK, so not one of my best jokes. But come on, I was desperate. The place was starting to feel like… well, like a morgue. And we'd all had enough of death to last us a lifetime.

"Jake," Sam said in a hollow voice. "Quit it." He didn't yell. Hell, he didn't even sound really irritated. He sounded kinda… empty. I got it. Sam felt responsible. Since I'd left to come to Hogwarts, he'd taken over as the Alpha again, at least temporarily. So no doubt he was feeling as guilty as I was about bringing Seth along to the fight.

"Oh, don't be like that," sighed Edward, who was standing by the window, perusing a copy of the _Daily Prophet_. "Seth wouldn't want us all moping about like this. He's almost as stubborn as you, Jacob. Sam, you know full well that even if you hadn't brought him along, Seth would have found his own way here anyway. He'd be furious at being left behind-"

"Stop it!" Leah blurted sharply. We all turned to look at her. "Don't- don't talk about him like that, 'wouldn't want us moping around'- he's not dead! So don't act like he already… like he's already…." She broke off with a shudder and scrabbled for her brother's hand, tears dripping the length of her face, staining her beautiful cheeks. Paul, who was never exactly Mr Touchy-Feely, reached out and put a comforting arm around her shoulders.

"Alice?" asked Bella, who was sitting the other side of Nessie. She sounded as shaky and close to tears as any vampire could be. "Alice, can you see anything? Anything at all?" If her tear ducts hadn't been all shrivelled and dried up, I would have fully expected her to burst into tears right there. Bella had always liked Seth. She said sometimes, when she was in a weird, nostalgic mood, that he used to remind her of me. Apart from the whole turning-into-wolves-when-we-can't control-our-emotions thing, I didn't see it.

Alice looked up from where she had been stroking Jasper's cheek. She gave Bella a sad little smile, her inky black hair sticking up in all directions, and shook her head. "Bella, he's a shape shifter. You know I can't see anything about his future, good or bad."

Bella nodded resignedly and returned to looking sadder than Blondie when her favourite shade of nail varnish went out of production. Once again, the mood in the room was darker than Snape's dungeon with the lanterns extinguished. I couldn't bear it. Depression is one thing I can't stand. Well, that and Rosalie Hale.

"Hey Jasper, can't you lighten the mood in here a little bit?"

"Sorry Jacob, I'm a little busy trying to get the taste of Seth's blood out of my mouth," Jasper shuddered, shrinking into Alice's arms. "That was the hardest thing I've ever done."

"I know it was Jazz," cooed Alice, stroking his hair. "You were so strong, so brave. It must have been a real struggle for you, but you did so well."

"She's right Jasper," Blondie piped up. "It must have been absolutely vile… I could never have done that."

"What, Blondie actually thinks someone is better at something than her?" I asked in a shocked voice, clutching at my heart. Quil and Embry sniggered appreciatively, and even Emmett smirked for a second.

"Ha ha. You see dog, I'm not completely self-centred, unlike _somebody_ I could mention-"

"You two, this isn't the time or place for that sort of behaviour," chastised Esme reprovingly from where she stood with Carlisle. She sounded so much like my mom used to sound, it was creepy. How can a cold, hard bloodsucker sound so much like the mom of a fever-running shape-shifter?

"Sorry Esme," Blondie and I chorused in unison, looking shame-faced. When she looked away, Blondie stuck her tongue out at me but I looked away loftily, drawing my chair closer to the hospital cot. You see, I was the bigger person, and not just literally.

We sat there for God knows how long, waiting for Seth to show some sign of life. Carlisle had been talking with the school nurse, Madam Pomfrey, who wasn't sure how things would play out, not having much experience with shape-shifter genetics. Jasper wasn't sure if he had managed to siphon all the venom outta Seth's blood, cos our blood tastes like crap to them anyway, poison or no poison. So basically, nobody had any idea what the hell was going on.

Other people came and went, needing minor injuries healed. Fred and George spent an hour or so entertaining us with jokes of a calibre I could never hope to rival while they waited for Bill and Fleur to get patched up. Amy dropped in with her friend Alyssa, who had received a couple of nasty burns in one of several small explosions around the castle before whipping some serious Death Eater butt. Madam Pomfrey fixed her up in a second and then the girls went off again, stopping briefly to tell us they sure hoped Seth would wake up because he'd helped them out earlier and was way more polite than English boys. And because, apparently, he was 'really cute'. Ugh, teenage girls. Or should I say, teenage girls who aren't Nessie. Imprinting really makes you notice other girls' faults. I mean, Amy and Alyssa were really pretty, but next to Nessie they held about as much interest for me as quantum physics.

As the hours wore on, even my fake cheeriness faded and we lapsed into an awkward, depressed silence. I didn't even have the heart to say anything smart to Blondie. This was really bad.

And then, just as I was starting to fall asleep, Leah screamed.

My eyes flew open and I looked around wildly. Leah was bobbing up and down like a three-year-old on Skittles, and everyone else was staring at her like she should be on the Janus Thickey ward at St. Mungo's.

"Leah, what the hell is-"

"He squeezed my hand! Seth squeezed my hand!" Leah shrieked, shaking her little brother so hard I half expected to hear his brain rattling around inside his head. "Wake up, you idiot, you've had me so freaked out I forgot to yell at the bloodsuckers, _and_ I called Mom and she roasted me for bringing you with me to-"

"Leah, shut up!" Paul, Quil and I roared in unison, rolling our eyes. Trust Leah to go off on one of her patented Leah Clearwater Irritating Rants™ at a time like this. Everybody tensed up as we leaned forward to see if Seth would hurry the hell up and put us out of our misery already.

"Come on, Seth!"

"Wake up already, man."

"Seth, we're all worried sick, wake up!"

Seth's eyelids fluttered, making him look kinda like he was auditioning for a mascara advertisement. He took a shuddering, gasping breath and then opened his eyes slowly, looking around. When he saw all of us sitting there watching him, his face split into that goofy little grin of his. I'd never been so happy to see it.

"Hey, guys! Um… Where am I?"

Leah gave a little bark of laughter, leaned over and hugged him tight. "You're in the hospital wing of Hogwarts, stupid! Don't you _dare_ ever scare me like that again, OK? You're going to give me a premature heart attack one of these days!" And with that she dealt him a swift smack to the head, before jumping to her feet and hugging the nearest person to her (Sam) in a bone-crushing hug before jumping away again awkwardly. Both of them looked away pointedly and then the celebrations began in earnest.

Like I said before, it was a weird and confusing day. Who would have thought that morning that by the end of the day Leah Clearwater would be hugging a vampire and thanking him for saving her brother's life? Or that Jasper, the consummate loner, would be at the centre of everything, with Paul and Sam patting him on the back and telling him the pack totally owed him one? Or that throughout the whole celebration, Blondie wouldn't check her reflection once?

I say again: weird.

But that wasn't the weirdest thing that happened. The weirdest thing happened when we had finally calmed down enough to explain to Seth what the hell was going on, because he looked more confused than Blondie confronted with a quadratic equation. There we were, sitting around, telling Seth how Jasper of all people had sucked Jane's venom out of him and saved his bacon, when Laura came wandering up the ward to pass on everyone else's best wishes to Seth.

"Hi everyone," she started uncertainly, her globe-like blue eyes flickering from face to face. "We heard all the yelling and cheering, so we figured Seth must have woken up. Well, um… Just thought I'd come up and say we're all happy to hear you're going to be OK Seth. I'm Laura, by the way, I know we haven't actually met but…" She trailed off, sticking a hand out for Seth to shake. But Seth just sat there in his hospital bed, mouth hanging open, looking at her like… well, like she was the only other person in the world.

"Aw, man!" I groaned, smacking him across the head. "Nice, Seth. Really nice."

"Uh- what…" Laura trailed off, looking as confused as the vamps (minus Edward, who of course knew exactly what was going on, with the whole 'mind reader' thing he had going on. The other Quileutes looked as pained as I felt.

"Seth, you jerk," Leah grumbled. "What is your _problem_?"

"Could someone please explain what's going on?" Bella demanded, sounding indignant. Figures. Not knowing stuff is very rare for bloodsuckers. I guess they didn't like it much. Welcome to my world, leeches.

"What's the first thing you'd do if you almost died? Anyone?" I asked, looking around at the group. "Maybe ask how everyone else was? Find out what you'd missed? Ask for some food? A drink? Or, in Seth's case, freaking _imprint_!"

"Oh, Seth, you didn't!" Alice groaned as Emmett and Jasper burst out laughing, Emmett in a deep bass, Jazz with a throaty snigger. Embry, Paul and Quil quickly joined in, and I could see even Dr. Fang attempting to keep a straight face behind Seth's notes.

"He can't help it," Bella defended him, patting his arm.

"_I _think it's great," said Nessie bluntly, giving Seth a quick hug and trying not to make contact with the big ol' scar on his neck. "I'm happy for you, Seth."

"Thanks," Seth replied faintly, eyes still on Laura, who was looking more than a little freaked out. He didn't seem capable of actually saying anything to her, just staring with bulging eyes and looking increasingly insane.

"Sam, Jared, why don't you two come help me explain the situation to Laura," Leah said, standing up and shaking her head like she couldn't believe this was actually happening. She wasn't the only one. "I'm sure you're a bit confused." Wow. Leah being compassionate. This day just got weirder and weirder.

"Yeah… You could say that," said Laura nervously, running a hand through her long waves of dark hair as Leah, Sam and Jared led her to a vacant bed a bit away. Seth craned his neck to follow her retreating form, a moan of longing slipping between his teeth.

"Can't you at least try to control yourself, dog?" Blondie hissed, looking scandalised. Hypocrite. She and Emmett spent most of their time joined at the lips.

"Shut up, Blondie. Why don't you go brush your hair or something?" I countered, forgetting momentarily about the fact that my wing-man had just imprinted on some poor unsuspecting schoolgirl. I mean, when there was Blondie to goad, everything else faded into the back of my mind.

And so the squabbling continued as out of the corner of my eye I watched Laura reacting to the news that a guy she'd never met before was obsessed with her, in a totally non-stalkerish way of course. To be fair to her, she reacted quite well. No screaming or crying, the way my sister had when Paul had imprinted on her. But then again, Seth was a lot less insane than Paul…

"Um… hi," Seth said tentatively as she wandered back over, perching gingerly on the edge of his bedspread. "I-I'm Seth. I guess you're completely freaked out by me and want nothing to do with me, but-"

"I don't mind," said Laura in her quiet, calm Irish voice. "I've been feeling like a spare fifth wheel ever since Hazel and Emma got together with Seamus and Dean, so I guess we can give this a go. I've been wanting to visit America for ages anyway…." She smiled brightly and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, gently reaching out and taking Seth's hand. "Do you want me to get you a drink or anything?"

"I think we should leave the lovebirds in peace," I grinned, helping Nessie to her feet. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do…"

"Jacob, _please_ keep those thoughts to yourself, that's my daughter you're thinking about," Edward shuddered, clutching Bella's hand so tight that if she was a human girl instead of a freakishly strong vampire, she would have come out in bruises.

"What's he thinking?" demanded Bella immediately, glaring at me. "Jake, if you do _anything_, I swear you'll wake up in a lead-lined box." And she actually growled.

"Mom, Dad, quit it," Nessie groaned, flushing spectacularly red. "I swear, you two are _sooooo_ embarrassing."

"Love you too, Ness," Bella grinned, ruffling her hair as Nessie cringed. I laughed and hugged her tight, ignoring Blondie's smirk and Emmett's snigger.

We wandered away down the hospital wing, stopping only to relay the story of the imprinting to the witches and wizards who had become our friends while we were at Hogwarts. Hermione, Ginny, Luna, Hazel and Emma thought it was romantic. Neville, Harry, Seamus and Dean coughed gruffly and said nothing. Ron fell off his chair in shock, and Hermione had to smack him across the face to stop him having some sort of breakdown. Talk about childish… and coming from me, that's saying something. I mean, my favourite pastime is antagonising Blondie.

"When Seth can peel himself away from Laura long enough to form some coherent speech, can you tell him thanks for fighting with us?" Harry asked, acting all noble and humble as per usual.

"Harry, for the last time," Bella sighed tiredly. "You don't need to be grateful, we would have fought anyway. The Volturi turned really nasty, and it was our duty to take them down. Helping to defeat the Dark Lord and keep you alive was just a happy side-effect."

"Couldn't have said it better myself, Bells."

/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/

There was a memorial service held in the school a couple of days later, so that the students could pay their last respects to the people who had died taking down the forces of evil.

Everybody wore dress robes, and nobody was sitting according to House anymore. The Slytherin table was completely empty, and Draco Malfoy was sitting alone at the end of the Ravenclaw table, looking like he didn't really think he should be there. I was sitting with Nessie and the rest of the Cullens at the Gryffindor table, opposite Harry & Co. There were black hangings everywhere, and books of condolence that people could write messages in, and anyone who wanted to could make a speech or comment about any of the people who had died. There was lots of crying and reminiscing, and I gotta say, I was pretty touched by the whole thing.

At the end of the ceremony, Professor Dumbledore stood up, looking very mystical as usual. He spread his arms out wide and looked around at all the tear-stained faces peering up at him, a sad smile on his face and his blue eyes twinkling with tears.

"Of course, we are all in pain at the loss of so many of our friends. It is only right that we honour their memory and mourn their passing. But they were all wonderfully brave individuals, willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. They gave up their own lives so that evil would not prevail over good. They are heroes. And they would want us to be happy that they did not die in vain. They would want us to celebrate the triumph of good, and we must respect their wishes. Though we are grieving now, we must also be happy in time."

There were a couple of nods of agreement, and a soft patter of applause. But Dumbledore wasn't finished.

"You all know by now of course that we have had some supernatural guests with us this past year. Professors Carlisle and Esme Cullen and their children have been attending here at Hogwarts at my request, for I feared an attack similar to that which we witnessed days ago. When our lives by others of their kind, they did not hesitate to come to our aid. They brought friends from all over the globe to help us. Their vampire friends have already left, because they too are in mourning. An Irish vampire named Maggie is among the dead, and we must be thankful for the sacrifice she has made."

Another smattering of applause and gold goblets were raised as the gathering muttered Maggie's name.

"As you can see, we have more visitors with us. Some of you have met them already-" I couldn't help grinning at Seth and Laura, who were holding hands. "- but for those of you who are not acquainted, these are Sam, Jared, Paul, Quil, Embry, Leah and Seth. They are shape shifters, like Jacob, and they have been instrumental in the success of our defence of Hogwarts."

There was louder applause this time, and I could see Seth and Embry grinning sheepishly while most of the others flushed red with embarrassment.

"I would like to thank each and every one of you for your help and protection- Sam, Jared, Quil, Embry, Seth, Paul, Leah, Carlisle, Esme, Edward, Bella, Alice, Jasper, Rosalie, Emmett, Jacob and Nessie. We at Hogwarts count you among our true friends, and you will be sorely missed. You will always be welcome here if you should have need of our help or shelter. Thank you all."

As the loudest applause yet began, Harry and the others leaned towards us, looking disappointed.

"You lot aren't staying?" Ron demanded, looking crestfallen.

"Sorry to disappoint," Nessie shrugged. "We miss Forks too much. I miss my granddad, and I haven't seen my grandma in forever."

"Plus, all the wolves need to get back to their imprints," Alice added as an afterthought.

"Yeah, you're stealing Laura away from us too!" exclaimed Ginny indignantly. I held my hands up defensively.

"Hey, hey, blame Seth Clearwater, not us!"

The assembly must have been dismissed at some point during our conversation, because suddenly chairs were squealing across the floor and students were getting to their feet, ready to leave. The Ministry of Magic had decided to postpone all exams for a couple of months in the wake of the defeat of the most evil wizard in the history of the world, and the school management had decided to give the students a few weeks' leave to go home and be with their families. The school train was leaving from Hogsmeade Station in a couple of hours.

Wrapping an arm around Nessie's waist, much to Edward and Bella's chagrin, I got up, closely followed by the others. Carlisle and Esme, looking their perfect best as per usual, waded through the throngs of students to where we were standing. Both of them looked sad, but were glancing anxiously at their watches, which no doubt were original Rolex and cost more than my whole house in La Push.

"I'm sorry everyone," Carlisle said apologetically, glancing around at the faces of the people who had kinda come to be our friends during the past couple of months at Hogwarts. "But Professor Dumbledore has arranged our Portkey for five minutes from now. It won't wait."

"Of course Carlisle," Blondie said, like nothing was too much trouble for her. Ha. "We'll meet you outside."

And we all headed out the huge oak front doors into the spring sunshine, clattering noisily down the stone steps to take one last look at the school grounds. From here I could see the Quidditch pitch where we'd played games and trained with our new friends, the vegetable patch and the greenhouses and Hagrid's hut, where we'd spent one memorable afternoon when I'd ended up in the hospital wing with a couple of broken teeth after trying to eat one of the half-giant's rock cakes. Blondie had laughed so hard I thought she was going to puke. Actually, I didn't know if vampire's _could_ puke.

"No, Jacob, we cannot vomit."

"Jeez Edward, could ya stop doing that?"

"Sorry, sorry."

"If you two have finished squabbling," Hermione said pointedly, anal-retentive as always.

"Of course," replied Edward politely, shooting her a smile so bright it could have blown a fuse if there was one in the vicinity. I saw Hermione's knees go weak, and Ron glared furiously, draping his arm around her in a not-so-discreet way.

"Well, we've really enjoyed having you all here," Ginny said, grinning as her keen eyes flitted from face to face. "I think I speak for everyone when I say you've become great friends to us."

"Absolutely," Harry and Hermione chorused in unison.

"Apart from when _some_ of you are giving my girlfriend heart failure, it's been fun," added Ron unnecessarily, but Edward just shook his head good-naturedly and smiled.

"Thanks for helping Hufflepuff to actually win a Quidditch match this year," Hazel grinned at me and Nessie. "And thanks for helping us with-"

"Defeating the Dark Lord, yeah, I think we've been through that before," interrupted Emma. "They're probably getting sick of hearing it by now. But thanks for… well, everything."

"Apart from stealing Laura," Hazel added as an afterthought.

"I told you already, it's Seth's fault, not ours!" I said defensively, grinning from ear to ear as the girls rushed forward to hug us all in turn while the boys stood back, being all gruff and macho, though still shooting Blondie hopeful glances. Edward rolled his eyes and strode forward, sticking out his hand and shaking Harry, Ron, Seamus and Dean's hands in turn. I copied him and so did the other guys, while the girls kissed their cheeks primly, laughing silvery laughs as they all turned various shades of red.

"Don't forget to come back and visit!" Hermione exclaimed shrilly as Carlisle and Esme emerged, Carlise clutching a mangy old boot that looked like it had been living in a rubbish dump for the last few years. It was glowing a dull blue glow. "We'll miss you all!"

"Of course we'll come back!" beamed Alice, starting to drift towards her adopted mom and dad. "And you've got to come to see us in Forks, too. It rains a lot, but there's some great shopping in the town nearby and La Push beach is beautiful."

"Yeah, if you like the stench of wet dog," Blondie spat, grinning wickedly as me and the rest of the Quileutes growled at her.

"Wait, I thought we weren't allowed in La Push," Emmett pointed out.

"That was before we fought together on several occasions and Jasper saved Seth's life," said Sam as Leah groaned. "We sort of owe you one. I think the use of our beach can be arranged."

"Awesome! I've always wanted to throw Blondie in the sea. I bet those perfectly-coiffed locks wouldn't survive intact…." I trailed off thoughtfully, lost in visions of this happy prospect.

"Anyway," Harry called over Blondie's mutinous muttering. "We'd love to come visit. I think we could all do with a holiday."

"Great!" grinned Nessie broadly as Carlisle called out warningly to us. "Send us on owl some time soon!"

"Come on!" Esme called urgently.

"Bye Laura!" Emma and Hazel chorused mournfully, hugging their friend. "We'll see you soon!"

"Love you girls!" There were tears in Laura's eyes, but she perked up considerably when Seth gave her a hug. I sniggered, and Nessie smacked me sharply across the head,

"Nobody laughs at you when you hug me," she chastised.

"Blondie does."

"She's my niece, I can't help it. She's so far out of your league, the concept of her loving you is laughable."

"Get used to it Blondie. Someone other than you is loved; I know the idea is totally foreign to you, but you're gonna have to come around to it sooner or later."

"Drop dead, dog."

"You first."

"WILL YOU TWO JUST SHUT UP?" everyone else yelled, and Nessie yanked me forward, pulling at my hand so that it was on the boot.

"I'm not touching _that_," Blondie shuddered.

"Fine, stay in the land of black robes and no internet forever, Blondie. Make my day- no wait, my life."

"Just to spite you," she countered, delicately placing her finger on the very tip of the boot. "I'll do it."

"Is everybody touching the boot somewhere?" Esme asked, fulfilling her duty as resident mother-hen. "Good. Carlisle, if you will."

Dr. Fang held his wand in his hand and looked around at us all, double-checking. Then he cleared his throat for dramatic effect. Well, it's not like he actually needed to, being a perfect leech and all.

"_Three…._"

"Bye!" chorused our English buds, waving madly.

"_Two…._"

"See you all soon!" we called back, craning our necks to catch one last glimpse of them all.

"_One_!"

There was a jerk behind my naval, so sharp I could swear I got a crick in my neck. I whirled through the air, feeling weirdly like I was on a rollercoaster. I willed myself to aim my vomit at Blondie if it ever got to that point.

But sadly, no projectile vomit sprayed Blondie's hair. Instead, it was all I could do to keep myself from falling flat on my face as my feet met solid ground again. I stumbled though, knocking into Rosalie so that she fell into a puddle of mud. I thought I would die laughing.

"And there I was thinking a trip to Hogwarts would change them for the better," Carlisle sighed as Blondie gave a shriek like a demon and started chasing me.

"Honestly Carlisle, that was naïve bordering on stupid," Edward smiled.

"Couldn't have said it better myself, Eddie."

"Jacob, if you ever call me Eddie again, it won't be just Rosalie baying for your blood."

"Sure, sure."

As I dodged Blondie's attack, I grinned to myself, rummaging in my pocket till I found what I needed. Carlisle had in fact been wrong. Hogwarts had changed me for the better: I'd learned how to perform the perfect Bat-Bogey Hex. Thank God for magic….

/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/

**A/N #2: And we're out. I know the ending was kind of lame, but it's the best I could come up with….. If you're reading this, then you've read to the end of Blurring the Lines and you deserve my undying praise and thanks! Everyone who's read or reviewed or added the story to your favourites or alerts, thank you so so much! If you want to make my happiness complete, please review one last time. It's the last chance you've got….**

**It might sound cheesy, but thanks again for reading! I've really enjoyed writing Blurring the Lines, and I hope you've enjoyed reading it too!**

**Signing off on Blurring the Lines for the last time,**

**Ciara**

**x x x**


End file.
